LIBRARY 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 
RIVFRSIDF 


7  &> 


PEDAGOGICS 


AS    A 


SYSTEM. 


By     Dr.     KARL    ROSENKRANZ, 
i  •  • 

Doctor  of  Theology  and  Professor  of  Philosophy  at  the  Univer- 
sity of  Konigsberg. 


TRANSLATED   FROM   THE   GERMAN 


By  ANNA  C.  BRACKETT. 


(Reprinted  from  Journal  of  Speculative  Philosophy. ~) 


ST.    LOUIS,    MO.: 
THE  R.  P.  STUDLEY  COMPANY,  PRINTERS,  CORNER  MAIN  &  OLIVE  STS. 

1872. 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1872,  by 

WILLIAM  T.  HARRIS, 
In  the  Office  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress  at  Washington. 


ANALYSIS. 


fits  Nature 

'in  its  General     <  its  Form 
Idea 

I.  its  Limits 
PART  I. 

f  Physical 


Education 


in  its  Special      <  Intellectual 
Elements 
I  Moral 
PART  II. 

f  Family  .... 
'Passive          -J  Caste     .    .    .    . 

China. 
India. 

L  Monkish    .    .    . 

Thibet. 

{Military     .    .    . 

Persia. 

in  its  Particular    National 
Systems 

PART  HI. 

Priestly     .    .    . 
Industrial     .    . 
{^Esthetic   .    .    . 

Egypt- 
Pho3nicia. 
Greece. 

Practical  .    .    . 

Borne. 

Theocratic 

Abstract  Indi- 
vidual 

(  Northern 
I  Barbarians. 

Jews 

Monkish 

Human  ita- 
*.    rian           , 

Chivalric        f  for  Special 
Callings 

(  Jesuitic. 
(Pietistic. 

.for  Civil  Life]  to    achieve    an 
Ideal  of  Culture 

for  Free  Citizen 

{The  Huma- 
nities. 
The  Philan- 
thropic 
Movem't. 

mip. 

PEDAGOGICS  AS  A  SYSTEM. 


[Inquiries  from  teachers  in  different  sections  of  the  country  as  to  the  sources 
of  information  on  the  subject  of  Teaching  as  a  Science  have  led  me  to  believe 
that  a  translation  of  Rosenkranz's  Pedagogics  may  be  widely  acceptable  and 
useful.  It  is  very  certain  that  too  much  of  our  teaching  is  simply  empirical, 
and  as  Germany  has,  -more  than  any  other  country,  endeavored  to  found  it 
upon  universal  truths,  it  is  to  that  country  that  we  must  at  present  look  for 
a  remedy  for  this  empiricism. 

Based  as  this  is  upon  the  profoundest  system  of  German  Philosophy,  no  more 
suggestive  treatise  on  Education  can  perhaps  be  found.  In  his  third  part,  as 
will  be  readily  seen,  Rosenkranz  follows  the  classification  of  National  ideas 
given  in  Hegel's  Philosophy  of  History.  The  word  "  Pedagogics,"  though  it 
has  unfortunately  acquired  a  somewhat  unpleasant  meaning  in  English  — 
thanks  to  the  writers  who  have  made  the  word  "pedagogue"  so  odious  — 
deserves  to  be  redeemed  for  future  use.  I  have,  therefore,  retained  it  in  the 
translation. 

In  order  that  the  reader  may  see  the  general  scope  of  the  work,  I  append  in 
tabular  form  the  table  of  contents,  giving  however,  under  the  first  and  second 
parts,  only  the  main  divisions.  The  minor  heads  can,  of  course,  as  they 
appear  in  the  translation,  be  easily  located. — 2V.] 


INTRODUCTION. 

§  1.  The  science  of  Pedagogics  cannot  be  derived  from  a 
simple  principle  with  such  exactness  as  Logic  and  Ethics.  It 
is  rather  a  mixed  science  which  has  its  presuppositions  in 
many  others.  In  this  respect  it  resembles  Medicine,  with 
which  it  has  this  also  in  common,  that  it  must  make  a  dis- 
tinction between  a  sound  and  an  unhealthy  system  of  educa- 
tion, and  must  devise  means  to  prevent  or  to  cure  the  latter. 
It  may  therefore  have,  like  Medicine,  the  three  departments 
of  Physiology,  Pathology,  and  Therapeutics. 

§  2.  Since  Pedagogics  is  capable  of  no  such  exact  defini- 
tions of  its  principle  and  no  such  logical  deduction  as  other 
sciences,  the  treatises  written  upon  it  abound  more  in  shallow- 
ness  than  any  other  literature.  Short-sightedness  and  arro- 
gance find  in  it  a  most  congenial  atmosphere,  and  criticism 


6  Pedagogics  as  a  System. 

and  declamatory  bombast  flourish  in  perfection  as  nowhere 
else.  The  literature  of  religious  tracts  might  be  considered  to 
rival  that  of  Pedagogics  in  its  superficiality  and  assurance, 
if  it  did  not  for  the  most  part  seem  itself  to  belong,  through 
its  ascetic  nature,  to  Pedagogics.  But  teachers  as  persons 
should  be  treated  in  their  weaknesses  and  failures  with  the 
utmost  consideration,  because  they  are  most  of  them  sincere 
in  contributing  their  mite  for  the  improvement  of  education, 
and  all  their  pedagogic  practice  inclines  them  towards  admin- 
istering reproof  and  giving  advice. 

§  3.  The  charlatanism  of  educational  literature  is  also  fos- 
tered by  the  fact  that  teaching  has  become  one  of  the  most 
profitable  employments,  and  the  competition  in  it  tends  to 
increase  self-glorification. 

—  When  "  Boz  "  in  his  "  Nicholas  Mckleby  "  exposed  the 
horrible  mysteries  of  an  English  boarding-school,  many 
teachers  of  such  schools  were,  as  he  assures  us,  so  accurately 
described  that  they  openly  complained  he  had  aimed  his 
caricatures  directly  at  them. — 

§  4.  In  the  system  of  the  sciences,  Pedagogics  belongs  to 
the  Philosophy  of  Spirit, — and  in  this,  to  the  department  of 
Practical  Philosophy,  the  problem  of  which  is  the  compre- 
hension of  the  necessity  of  freedom ;  for  education  is  the  con- 
scious working  of  one  will  on  another  so  as  to  produce  itself 
in  it  according  to  a  determinate  aim.  The  idea  of  subj  ective 
spirit,  as  well  as  that  of  Art,  Science,  and  Religion,  forms 
the  essential  condition  for  Pedagogics,  but  does  not  contain 
its  principle.  If  one  thinks  out  a  complete  statement  of  Prac- 
tical Philosophy  (Ethics),  Pedagogics  may  be  distributed 
among  all  its  grades.  But  the  point  at  which  Pedagogics  itself 
becomes  organic  is  the  idea  of  the  Family,  because  in  the 
family  the  difference  between  the  adults  and  the  minors  en- 
ters directly  through  the  naturalness  of  spirit,  and  the  right 
of  the  children  to  an  education  and  the  duty  of  parents 
towards  them  in  this  respect  is  incontestable.  All  other 
spheres  of  education,  in  order  to  succeed,  must  presuppose  a 
true  family  life.  They  may  extend  and  complement  the  busi- 
ness of  teaching,  but  cannot  be  its  original  foundation. 

— In  our  systematic  exposition  of  Education,  we  must  not 
allow  ourselves  to  be  led  into  error  by  those  theories  which 


Pedagogics  as  a  System.  7 

do  not  recognize  the  family,  and  which  limit  the  relation  of 
husband  and  wife  to  the  producing  of  children.  The  Platonic 
Philosophy  is  the  most  worthy  representative  of  this  class. 
Later  writers  who  take  great  pleasure  in  seeing  the  world 
full  of  children,  but  who  would  subtract  from  the  love  to  a 
wife  all  truth  and  from  that  to  children  all  care,  exhibit  in 
their  doctrine  of  the  anarchy  of  love  only  a  sickly  (but  yet 
how  prevalent  an)  imitation  of  the  Platonic  state. — 

§  5.  Much  confusion  also  arises  from  the  fact  that  many  do 
not  clearly  enough  draw  the  distinction  between  Pedagogics 
as  a  science  and  Pedagogics  as  an  art.  As  a  science  it  busies 
itself  with  developing  a  priori  the  idea  of  Education  in  the 
universality  and  necessity  of  that  idea,  but  as  an  art  it  is  the 
concrete  individualizing  of  this  abstract  idea  in  any  given 
case.  And  in  any  such  given  case,  the  peculiarities  of  the 
person  who  is  to  be  educated  and  all  the  previously  existing 
circumstances  necessitate  a  modification  of  the  universal  aims\ 
and  ends,  which  modification  cannot  be  provided  for  before- 
hand, but  must  rather  test  the  ready  tact  of  the  educator  who, 
knows  how  to  make  the  existing  conditions  fulfil  his  desiredj 
end.  It -is  exactly  in  doing  this  that  the  educator  may  show 
himself  inventive  and  creative,  and  that  pedagogic  talent  cani 
distinguish  itself.  The  word  "art"  is  here  used  in  the  same 
way  as  it  is  used  when  we  say,  the  art  of  war,  the  art  of  gov- 
ernment, &c. ;  and  rightly,  for  we  are  talking  about  the 
possibility  of  the  realization  of  the  idea. 

— The  educator  must  adapt  himself  to  the  pupil,  but  not  to  \ 
such  a  degree  as  to  imply  that  the  pupil  is  incapable  of  change,  \ 
and  he  must  also  be  sure  that  the  pupil  shall  learn  through  his 
experience  the  independence  of  the  object  studied,  which  re- 
mains uninfluenced  by  his  variable  personal  moods,  and  the 
adaptation  on  the  teacher's  part  must  never  compromise  this 
independence. — 

§  6.  If  conditions  which  are  local,  temporal,  and  individual, 
are  fixed  as  constant  rules,  and  carried  beyond  their  proper 
limits,  are  systematized  as  a  valuable  formalistic  code,  una- 
voidable error  arises.  The  formulae  of  teaching  are  admirable 
material  for  the  science,  but  are  not  the  science  itself. 

§  7.  Pedagogics  as  a  science  must  (1)  unfold  the  general 
idea  of  Education ;  (2)  must  exhibit  the  particular  phases  into 


8  Pedagogics  as  a  System. 

which  the  general  work  of  Education  divides  itself,  and  (3) 
must  describe  the  particular  standpoint  upon  which  the  gen- 
eral idea  realizes  itself,  or  should  become  real  in  its  special 
processes  at  any  particular  time. 

§  8.  The  treatment  of  the  first  part  offers  no  difficulty.  It 
is  logically  too  evident.  But  it  would  not  do  to  substitute  for 
it  the  history  of  Pedagogics,  simply  because  all  the  concep- 
tions of  it  which  appear  in  systematic  treatises  can  be  found 
there. 

— Into  this  error  Gr.  Thaulow  has  fallen  in  his  pamphlet  on 
Pedagogics  as  a  Philosophical  Science. — 

§  9.  The  second  division  unfolds  the  subject  of  the  physi- 
cal, intellectual  and  practical  culture  of  the  human  race,  and 
constitutes  the  main  part  of  all  books  on  Pedagogy.  Here 
arises  the  greatest  difficulty  as  to  the  limitations,  partly  be- 
cause of  the  undefined  nature  of  the  ideas,  partly  because  of 
the  degree  of  amplification  which  the  details  demand.  Here 
is  the  field  of  the  widest  possible  differences.  If  e.g.  one 
studies  out  the  conception  of  the  school  with  reference  to  the 
qualitative  specialities  which  one  may  consider,  it  is  evident 
that  he  can  extend  his  remarks  indefinitely ;  he  may  speak 
thus  of  technological  schools  of  all  kinds,  to  teach  mining, 
navigation,  war,  art,  &c. 

§  10.  The  third  division  distinguishes  between  the  different 
standpoints  which  are  possible  in  the  working  out  of  the  con- 
ception of  Education  in  its  special  elements,  and  which  there- 
fore produce  different  systems  of  Education  wherein  the  gen- 
eral and  the  particular  are  individualized  in  a  special  manner. 
In  every  system  the  general  tendencies  of  the  idea  of  educa- 
tion, and  the  difference  between  the  physical,  intellectual  and 
practical  culture  of  man,  must  be  formally  recognized,  and 
will  appear.  The  How  is  decided  by  the  standpoint  which 
reduces  that  formalism  to  a  special  system.  Thus  it  becomes 
possible  to  discover  the  essential  contents  of  the  history  of 
Pedagogics  from  its  idea,  since  this  can  furnish  not  an  in- 
definite but  a  certain  number  of  Pedagogic  systems. 

— The  lower  standpoint  merges  always  into  the  higher,  and  in 
so  doing  first  attains  its  full  meaning,  e.g. :  Education  for  the 
sake  of  the  nation  is  set  aside  for  higher  standpoints,  e.g. 
that  of  Christianity ;  but  we  must  not  suppose  that  the  na- 


Pedagogics  as  a  System.  9 

tional  phase  of  Education  was  counted  as  nought  from  the 
Christian  standpoint.  Rather  it  itself  had  outgrown  the  limits 
which,  though  suitable  enough  for  its  early  stage,  could  no 
longer  contain  its  true  idea.  This  is  sure  to  be  the  case  in 
the  fact  that  the  national  individualities  become  indestructi- 
ble by  being  incorporated  into  Christianity — a  fact  that  con- 
tradicts the  abstract  seizing  of  such  relations. — 

§  11.  The  last  system  must  be  that  of  the  present,  and  since 
this  is  certainly  on  one  side  the  result  of  all  the  past,  while 
on  the  other  seized  in  its  possibilities  it  is  determined  by  the 
Future,  the  business  of  Pedagogics  cannot  pause  till  it  reaches 
its  ideal  of  the  general  and  special  determinations,  so  that 
looked  at  in  this  way  the  Science  of  Pedagogics  at  its  end 
returns  to  its  beginning.  The  first  and  second  divisions  al- 
ready contain  the  idea  of  the  system  necessary  for  the  Present. 


FIRST    PART. 
The  General  Idea  of  Education. 

§  12.  The  idea  of  Pedagogics  in  general  must  distinguish, 

(1)  The  nature  of  Education  in  general ; 

(2)  Its  form ; 

(3)  Its  limits. 

i. 

The  Nature  of  Education. 

§  13.  The  nature  of  Education  is  determined  by  the  nature 
of  mind — that  it  can  develop  whatever  it  really  is  only  by  its 
own  activity.  Mind  is  in  itself  free ;  but  if  it  does  not  actual- 
ize this  possibility,  it  is  in  no  true  sense  free,  either  for  itself 
or  for  another.  Education  is  the  influencing  of  man  by  man, 
and  it  has  for  its  end  to  lead  him  to  actualize  himself  through 
his  own  efforts.  The  attainment  of  perfect  manhood  as  the 
actualization  of  the  Freedom  necessary  to  mind  constitutes 
the  nature  of  Education  in  general. 

— The  completely  isolated  man  does  not  become  man.  Soli- 
tary human  beings  who  have  been  found  in  forests,  like  the 
wild  girl  of  the  forest  of  Ardennes,  sufficiently  prove  the  fact 
that  the  truly  human  qualities  in  man  cannot  be  developed 
without  reciprocal  action  with  human  beings.  Caspar  Hau- 
ser  in  his  subterranean  prison  is  an  illustration  of  what  man 


10 


Pedagogics  as  a  System. 


would  be  by  himself.  The  first  cry  of  the  child  expresses  in 
its  appeals  to  others  this  helplessness  of  spirituality  on  the 
side  of  nature. — 

§  14.  Man,  therefore,  is  the  only  fit  subject  for  education. 
We  often  speak,  it  is  true,  of  the  education  of  plants  and 
animals  ;  but  even  when  we  do  so,  we  apply,  unconsciously 
perhaps,  other  expressions,  as  "raising"  and  "training,"  in  or- 
der to  distinguish  these.  "Breaking"  consists  in  producing  in 
an  animal,  either  by  pain  or  pleasure  of  the  senses,  an  activ- 
ity of  which,  it  is  true,  he  is  capable,  but  which  he  never 
would  have  developed  if  left  to  himself.  On  the  other  hand, 
it  is  the  nature  of  Education  only  to  assist  in  the  producing 
of  that  which  the  subject  would  strive  most  earnestly  to  de- 
velop for  himself  if  he  had  a  clear  idea  of  himself.  "We  speak 
of  raising  trees  and  animals,  but  not  of  raising  men ;  and  it 
is  only  a  planter  who  looks  to  his  slaves  only  for  an  increase 
in  their  number. 

— The  education  of  men  is  quite  often  enough,  unfortunate- 
ly, only  a  "  breaking,"  and  here  and  there  still  may  be  found 
examples  where  one  tries  to  teach  mechanically,  not  through 
the  understanding  power  of  the  creative  WORD,  but  through 
the  powerless  and  fruitless  appeal  to  physical  pain. — 

§  15.  The  idea  of  Education  may  be  more  or  less  compre- 
hensive. We  use  it  in  the  widest  sense  when  we  speak  of 
the  Education  of  the  race,  for  we  understand  by  this  expres- 
sion the  connection  which  the  acts  and  situations  of  differ- 
ent nations  have  to  each  other,  as  different  steps  towards 
self-conscious  freedom.  In  this  the  world-spirit  is  the  teacher. 

§  16.  In  a  more  restricted  sense  we  mean  by  Education  the 
shaping  of  the  individual  life  by  the  forces  of  nature,  the 
rhythmical  movement  of  national  customs,  and  the  might  of 
destiny  in  which  each  one  finds  limits  set  to  his  arbitrary  will. 
These  often  mould  him  into  a  man  without  his  knowledge. 
For  he  cannot  act  in  opposition  to  nature,  nor  offend  the  ethi- 
cal sense  of  the  people  among  whom  he  dwells,  nor  despise 
the  leading  of  destiny  without  discovering  through  experience 
that  before  the  Nemesis  of  these  substantial  elements  his 
subjective  power  can  dash  itself  only  to  be  shattered.  If  he 
perversely  and  persistently  rejects  all  our  admonitions,  we 
leave  him,  as  a  last  resort,  to  destiny,  whose  iron  rule  must 


Pedagogics  as  a  System.  11 

educate  him,  and  reveal  to  him  the  God  whom  he  has  misun- 
derstood. 

— It  is,  of  course,  sometimes  not  only  possible,  but  necessary 
for  one,  moved  by  the  highest  sense  of  morality,  to  act  in  op- 
position to  the  laws  of  nature,  to  offend  the  ethical  sense  of 
the  people  that  surround  him,  and  to  brave  the  blows  of  des- 
tiny ;  but  such  a  one  is  a  sublime  reformer  or  martyr,  and  we 
Are  not  now  speaking  of  such,  but  of  the  perverse,  the  frivo- 
lous, and  the  conceited. — 

§  17.  In  the  narrowest  sense,  which  however  is  the  usual  one, 
we  mean  by  Education  the  influence  which  one  mind  exerts  on 
another  in  order  to  cultivate  the  latter  in  some  understood  and 
methodical  way,  either  generally  or  with  reference  to  some 
special  aim.  The  educator  must,  therefore,  be  relatively 
finished  in  his  own  education,  and  the  pupil  must  possess 
unlimited  confidence  in  him.  If  authority  be  wanting  on  the 
one  side,  or  respect  and  obedience  on  the  other,  this  ethical 
basis  of  development  must  fail,  and  it  demands  in  the  very 
highest  degree,  talent,  knowledge,  skill,  and  prudence. 

— Education  takes  on  this  form  only  under  the  culture  which 
has  been  developed  through  the  influence  of  city  life.  Up  to 
that  time  we  have  the  naive  period  of  education,  which  holds 
to  the  general  powers  of  nature,  of  national  customs,  and  of 
destiny,  and  which  lasts  for  a  long  time  among  the  rural 
populations.  But  in  the  city  a  greater  complication  of  events, 
an  uncertainty  of  the  results  of  reflection,  a  working  out  of 
individuality,  and  a  need  of  the  possession  of  many  arts 
and  trades,  make  their  appearance  and  render  it  impossible 
for  men  longer  to  be  ruled  by  mere  custom.  The  Telemachus 
of  Fenelon  was  educated  to  rule  himself  by  means  of  reflec- 
tion ;  the  actual  Telemachus  in  the  heroic  age  lived  simply 
according  to  custom. — 

§  18.  The  general  problem  of  Education  is  the  development 
of  the  theoretical  and  practical  reason  in  the  individual.  If 
we  say  that  to  educate  one  means  to  fashion  him  into  morality, 
we  do  not  make  our  definition  sufficiently  comprehensive,  be- 
cause we  say  nothing  of  intelligence,  and  thus  confound  edu- 
cation and  ethics.  A  man  is  not  merely  a  human  being,  but 
as  a  reasonable  being  he  is  a  peculiar  individual,  and  differ- 
ent from  all  others  of  the  race. 


12  Pedagogics  as  a  System. 

§  19.  Education  must  lead  the  pupil  by  an  interconnected 
series  of  efforts  previously  foreseen  and  arranged  by  the 
teacher  to  a  definite  end  ;  but  the  particular  form  which  this 
shall  take  must  be  determined  by  the  peculiar  character  of 
the  pupil's  mind  and  the  situation  in  which  he  is  found. 
Hasty  and  inconsiderate  work  may  accomplish  much,  but  only 
systematic  work  can  advance  and  fashion  him  in  conformity  • 
with  his  nature,  and  the  former  does  not  belong  to  education, 
for  this  includes  in  itself  the  idea  of  an  end,  and  that  of  the 
technical  means  for  its  attainment. 

§  20.  But  as  culture  comes  to  mean  more  and  more,  there 
becomes  necessary  a  division  of  the  business  of  teaching 
among  different  persons,  with  reference  to  capabil  *ies  and 
knowledge,  because  as  the  arts  and  sciences  are  continually 
increasing  in  number,  one  can  become  learned  in  any  one 
branch  only  by  devoting  himself  exclusively  to  it,  and  hence 
becoming  one-sided.  A  difficulty  hence  arises  which  is  also 
one  for  the  pupil,  of  preserving,  in  spite  of  this  unavoidable 
one-sidedness,  the  unity  and  wholeness  which  are  necessary 
to  humanity. 

—The  naive  dignity  of  the  happy  savage,  and  the  agreea- 
ble simplicity  of  country  people,  appear  to  very  great  advan- 
tage when  contrasted  on  this  side  with  the  often  unlimited 
narrowness  of  a  special  trade,  and  the  endless  curtailing  of 
the  wholeness  of  man  by  the  pruning  processes  of  city  life. 
Thus  the  often  abused  savage  has  his  hut,  his  family,  his 
cocoa  tree,  his  weapons,  his  passions  ;  he  fishes,  hunts,  plays, 
fights,  adorns  himself,  and  enjoys  the  consciousness  that  he 
is  the  centre  of  a  whole,  while  a  modern  citizen  is  often  only 
an  abstract  expression  of  culture. — 

§  21.  As  it  becomes  necessary  to  divide  the  work  of  teach- 
ing, a  difference  between  general  and  special  schools  arises 
also,  from  the  needs  of  growing  culture.  The  former  present 
in  different  compass  all  the  sciences  and  arts  which  are  in- 
cluded in  the  term  "general  education,"  and  which  were 
classified  by  the  Greeks  under  the  general  name  of  Encyclo- 
paedia. The  latter  are  known  as  special  schools,  suited  to 
particular  needs  or  talents. 

—As  those  who  live  in  the  country  are  relatively  isolated, 
it  is  often  necessary,  or  at  least  desirable,  that  one  man  should 


Pedagogics  as  a  System.  13 

be  trained  equally  on  many  different  sides.  The  poor  tutor 
is  required  not  only  to  instruct  in  all  the  sciences,  he  must 
also  speak  French  and  be  able  to  play  the  piano. — 

§  22.  For  any  single  person,  the  relation  of  his  actual  edu- 
cation to  its  infinite  possibilities  can  only  be  approximately 
determined,  and  it  can  be  considered  as  only  relatively  fin- 
ished on  any  one  side.  Education  is  impossible  to  him  who 
is  born  an  idiot,  since  the  want  of  the  power  of  generalizing 
and  of  ideality  of  conscious  personality  leaves  to  such  an  un- 
fortunate only  the  possibility  of  a  mechanical  training. 

— Sagert,  the  teacher  of  the  deaf  mutes  in  Berlin,  has  made 
laudable  efforts  to  educate  idiots,  but  the  account  as  given  in 
his  publication,  "  Cure  of  Idiots  by  an  Intellectual  Method, 
Berlin,  1846,"  shows  that  the  result  obtained  was  only  exter- 
nal ;  and  though  we  do  not  desire  to  be  understood  as  deny- 
ing or  refusing  to  this  class  the  possession  of  a  mind  in  po- 
tentia,  it  appears  in  them  to  be  confined  to  an  embryonic 


ii. 

The  Form  of  Education. 

§  23.  The  general  form  of  Education  is  determined  by  the 
nature  of  the  mind,  that  it  really  is  nothing  but  what  it  makes 
itself  to  be.  The  mind  is  (1)  immediate  (or  potential),  but  (2) 
it  must  estrange  itself  from  itself  as  it  were,  so  that  it  may 
place  itself  over  against  itself  as  a  special  object  of  attention ; 
(3)  this  estrangement  is  finally  removed  through  a  further  ac- 
quaintance with  the  object — it  feels  itself  at  home  in  that  on 
which  it  looks,  and  returns  again  enriched  to  the  form  of  im- 
mediateness.  That  which  at  first  appeared  to  be  another  than 
itself  is  now  seen  to  be  itself.  Education  cannot  create ;  it 
can  only  help  to  develop  to  reality  the  previously  existent 
possibility ;  it  can  only  help  to  bring  forth  to  light  the  hid- 
den life. 

§  24.  All  culture,  whatever  may  be  its  special  purport,  must 
pass  through  these  two  stages — of  estrangement,  and  its  remo- 
val. Culture  must  hold  fast  to  the  distinction  between  the 
subject  and  the  object  considered  immediately,  though  it  has 
again  to  absorb  this  distinction  into  itself,  in  order  that  the 
union  of  the  two  may  be  more  complete  and  lasting.  The 
subject  recognizes  then  all  the  more  certainly  that  what  at 


14  Pedagogics  as  a  System. 

first  appeared  to  it  as  a  foreign  existence,  belongs  to  it  as  its 
own  property,  and  that  it  holds  it  as  its  own  all  the  more  by 
means  of  culture. 

— Plato,  as  is  known,  calls  the  feeling  with  which  knowl- 
edge must  begin,  wonder ;  but  this  can  serve  as  a  beginning 
only,  for  wonder  itself  can  only  express  the  tension  between 
the  subject  and  the  object  at  their  first  encounter  —  a  tension 
which  would  be  impossible  if  they  were  not  in  themselves 
identical.  Children  have  a  longing  for  the  far-off,  the  stranger 
and  the  wonderful,  as  if  they  hoped  to  find  in  these  an  expla- 
nation of  themselves.  They  want  the  object  to  be  a  genuine 
object.  That  to  which  they  are  accustomed,  which  they  see 
around  them  every  day,  seems  to  have  no  longer  any  objec- 
tive energy  for  them ;  but  an  alarm  of  fire,  banditti  life,  wild 
animals,  gray  old  ruins,  the  robin's  songs,  and  far-off  happy 
islands,  &c.  —  everything  high-colored  and  dazzling — leads 
them  irresistibly  on.  The  necessity  of  the  mind's  making 
itself  foreign  to  itself  is  that  which  makes  children  prefer  to 
hear  of  the  adventurous  journeys  of  Sinbad  than  news  of 
their  own  city  or  the  history  of  their  nation,  and  in  youth 
this  same  necessity  manifests  itself  in  their  desire  of  trav- 
elling.— 

§  25.  This  activity  of  the  mind  in  allowing  itself  to  be 
absorbed,  and  consciously  so,  in  an  object  with  the  purpose  of 
making  it  his  own,  or  of  producing  it,  is  Work.  But  when  the 
mind  gives  itself  up  to  its  objects  as  chance  may  present 
them  or  through  arbitrariness,  careless  as  to  whether  they 
have  any  result,  such  activity  is  Play.  Work  is  laid  out  for 
the  pupil  by  his  teacher  by  authority,  but  in  his  play  he  is 
left  to  himself. 

§  26.  Thus  work  and  play  must  be  sharply  distinguished 
from  each  other.  If  one  has  not  respect  for  work  as  an  im- 
portant and  substantial  activity,  he  not  only  spoils  play  for 
his  pupil,  for  this  loses  all  its  charm  when  deprived  of  the 
antithesis  of  an  earnest,  set  task,  but  he  undermines  his  re- 
spect for  real  existence.  On  the  other  hand,  if  he  does  not 
give  him  space,  time,  and  opportunity,  for  play,  he  prevents 
the  peculiarities  of  his  pupil  from  developing  freely  through 
the  exercise  of  his  creative  ingenuity.  Play  sends  the  pupil 
back  refreshed  to  his  work,  since  in  play  he  forgets  himself 


Pedagogics  as  a  System.  15 

in  his  own  way,  while  in  work  he  is  required  to  forget  him- 
self in  a  manner  prescribed  for  him  by  another. 

— Play  is  of  great  importance  in  helping  one  to  discover 
the  true  individualities  of  children,  because  in  play  they  may 
betray  thoughtlessly  their  inclinations.  This  antithesis  of 
work  and  play  runs  through  the  entire  life.  Children  anti- 
cipate in  their  play  the  earnest  work  of  after  life ;  thus  the 
little  girl  plays  with  her  doll,  and  the  boy  pretends  he  is  a 
soldier  and  in  battle. — 

§  27.  Work  should  never  be  treated  as  if  it  were  play,  nor 
play  as  if  it  were  work.  In  general,  the  arts,  the  sciences,  and 
productions,  stand  in  this  relation  to  each  other :  the  accu- 
mulation of  stores  of  knowledge  is  the  recreation  of  the  mind 
which  is  engaged  in  independent  creation,  and  the  practice 
of  arts  fills  the  same  office  to  those  whose  work  is  to  collect 
knowledge. 

§  28.  Education  seeks  to  transform  every  particular  condi- 
tion so  that  it  shall  no  longer  seem  strange  to  the  mind  or  in 
anywise  foreign  to  its  own  nature.  This  identity  of  conscious- 
ness, and  the  special  character  of  anything  done  or  endured 
by  it,  we  call  Habit  [habitual  conduct  or  behavior].  It  con- 
ditions formally  all  progress ;  for  that  which  is  not  yet  be- 
come habit,  but  which  we  perform  with  design  and  an  exer- 
cise of  our  will,  is  not  yet  a  part  of  ourselves. 

§  29.  As  to  Habit,  we  have  to  say  next  that  it  is  at  first 
indifferent  as  to  what  it  relates.  But  that  which  is  to  be 
considered  as  indifferent  or  neutral  cannot  be  defined  in  the 
abstract,  but  only  in  the  concrete,  because  anything  that  is 
indifferent  as  to  whether  it  shall  act  on  these  particular  men, 
or  in  this  special  situation,  is  capable  of  another  or  even 
of  the  opposite  meaning  for  another  man  or  men  for  the  same 
men  or  in  other  circumstances.  Here,  then,  appeal  must  be 
made  to  the  individual  conscience  in  order  to  be  able  from 
the  depths  of  individuality  to  separate  what  we  can  permit 
to  ourselves  from  that  which  we  must  deny  ourselves.  The 
aim  of  Education  must  be  to  arouse  in  the  pupil  this  spir- 
itual and  ethical  sensitiveness  which  does  not  recognize  any- 
thing as  merely  indifferent,  but  rather  knows  how  to  seize  in 
everything,  even  in  the  seemingly  small,  its  universal  hu- 
man significance.  But  in  relation  to  the  highest  problems  he 


16  Pedagogics  as  a  System. 

)  must  learn  that  what  concerns  his  own  immediate  personality 
is  entirely  indifferent. 

§  30.  Habit  lays  aside  its  indifference  to  an  external  action 
through  reflection  on  the  advantage  or  disadvantage  of  the 
same.  Whatever  tends  as  a  harmonious  means  to  the  reali- 
zation of  an  end  is  advantageous,  but  that  is  disadvantageous 
which,  by  contradicting  its  idea,  hinders  or  destroys  it.  Ad- 
vantage and  disadvantage  being  then  only  relative  terms,  a 
habit  which  is  advantageous  for  one  man  in  one  case  may  be 
disadvantageous  for  another  man,  or  even  for  the  same  man, 
under  different  circumstances.  Education  must,  therefore, 
accustom  the  youth  to  judge  as  to  the  expediency  or  inexpe- 
diency of  any  action  in  its  relation  to  the  essential  vocation 
of  his  life,  so  that  he  shall  avoid  that  which  does  not  promote 
its  success. 

§  31.  But  the  absolute  distinction  of  habit  is  the  moral  dis- 
tinction between  the  good  and  the  bad.  For  from  this  stand- 
point alone  can  we  finally  decide  what  is  allowable  and  what 
is  forbidden,  what  is  advantageous  and  what  is  disadvan- 
tageous. 

§  32.  As  relates  to  form,  habit  may  be  either  passive  or  ac- 
tive. The  passive  is  that  which  teaches  us  to  bear  the  vicis- 
situdes of  nature  as  well  as  of  history  with  such  composure 
that  we  shall  hold  our  ground  against  them,  being  always 
equal  to  ourselves,  and  that  we  shall  not  allow  our  power  of 
acting  to  be  paralyzed  through  any  mutations  of  fortune. 
Passive  habit  is  not  to  be  confounded  with  obtuseness  in  re- 
ceiving impressions,  a  blank  abstraction  from  the  affair  in 
hand  which  at  bottom  is  found  to  be  nothing  more  than  a 
selfishness  which  desires  to  be  left  undisturbed :  it  is  simply 
composure  of  mind  in  view  of  changes  over  which  we  have  no 
control.  While  we  vividly  experience  joy  and  sorrow,  pain 
and  pleasure  —  inwoven  as  these  are  with  the  change  of  sea- 
sons, of  the  weather,  &c.  —  with  the  alternation  of  life  and 
death,  of  happiness  and  misery,  we  ought  nevertheless  to 
harden  ourselves  against  them  so  that  at  the  same  time  in 
our  consciousness  of  the  supreme  worth  of  the  mind  we  shall 
build  up  the  inaccessible  stronghold  of  Freedom  in  ourselves. 
— Active  habit  [or  behavior]  is  found  realized  in  a  wide  range 
of  activity  which  appears  in  manifold  forms,  such  as  skill, 


Formation  of  Habits.  17 

dexterity,  readiness  of  information,  &c.  It  is  a  steeling  of 
the  internal  for  action  upon  the  external,  as  the  Passive  is  a 
steeling  of  the  internal  against  the  influences  of  the  external. 

§  33.  Habit  is  the  general  form  which  instruction  takes. 
For  since  it  reduces  a  condition  or  an  activity  within  our- 
selves to  an  instinctive  use  and  wont,  it  is  necessary  for 
any  thorough  instruction.  But  as,  according  to  its  content,  it 
may  be  either  proper  or  improper,  advantageous  or  disadvan- 
tageous, good  or  biad,  and  according  to  its  form  may  be  the 
assimilation  of  the  external  by  the  internal,  or  the  impress 
of  the  internal  upon  the  external,  Education  must  procure 
for  the  pupil  the  power  of  being  able  to  free  himself  from 
one  habit  and  to  adopt  another.  Through  his  freedom  he 
must  be  able  not  only  to  renounce  any  habit  formed,  but  to 
form  a  new  one ;  and  he  must  so  govern  his  system  of  habits 
that  it  shall  exhibit  a  constant  progress  of  development  into 
greater  freedom.  We  must  discipline  ourselves,  as  a  means 
toward  the  ever-changing  realization  of  the  Good  in  us,  con- 
stantly to  form  and  to  break  habits. 

— We  must  characterize  those  habits  as  bad  which,  relate 
only  to  our  convenience  or  our  enjoyment.  They  are  often 
not  blamable  in  themselves,  but  there  lies  in  them  a  hidden 
danger  that  they  may  allure  us  into  luxury  or  effeminacy. 
But  it  is  a  false  and  mechanical  way  of  looking  at  the  affair 
if  we  suppose  that  a  habit  which  has  been  formed  by  a  cer- 
tain number  of  repetitions  can  be  broken  by  an  equal  number 
of  denials.  We  can  never  renounce  a  habit  utterly  except 
through  a  clearness  of  judgment  which  decides  it  to  be  unde- 
sirable, and  through  firmness  of  will. — 

§  34.  Education  comprehends  also  the  reciprocal  action  of 
the  opposites,  authority  and  obedience,  rationality  and  indi- 
viduality, work  and  play,  habit  and  spontaneity.  If  we  ima- 
gine that  these  can  be  reconciled  by  rules,  it  will  be  in  vain 
that  we  try  to  restrain  the  youth  in  these  relations.  But  a 
failure  in  education  in  this  particular  is  very  possible  through 
the  freedom  of  the  pupil,  through  special  circumstances,  or 
through  the  errors  of  the  educator  himself.  And  for  this  very 
reason  any  theory  of  Education  must  take  into  account  in 
the  beginning  this  negative  possibility.  It  must  consider  be- 
forehand the  dangers  which  threaten  the  pupil  in  all  possible 


18  Protection  against  Temptation. 

ways  even  before  they  surround  Mm,  and  fortify  him  against 
them.  Intentionally  to  expose  him  to  temptation  in  order  to 
prove  his  strength,  is  devilish ;  and,  on  the  other  hand,  to 
guard  him  against  the  chance  of  dangerous  temptation,  to 
wrap  him  in  cotton  (as  the  proverb  says),  is  womanish,  ridic- 
ulous, fruitless,  and  much  more  dangerous ;  for  temptation 
comes  not  alone  from  without,  but  quite  as  often  from  with- 
in, and  secret  inclination  seeks  and  creates  for  itself  the 
opportunity  for  its  gratification,  often  perhaps  an  unnatural 
one.  The  truly  preventive  activity  consists  not  in  an  abstract 
seclusion  from  the  world,  all  of  whose  elements  are  innate  in 
each  individual,  but  in  the  activity  of  knowledge  and  disci- 
pline, modified  according  to  age  and  culture. 

— If  one  endeavors  to  deprive  the  youth  of  all  free  and  in- 
dividual intercourse  with  the  world,  one  only  falls  into  a 
continual  watching  of  him,  and  the  consciousness  that  he  is 
watched  destroys  in  him  all  elasticity  of  spirit,  all  confidence, 
all  originality.  (^The  police  shadow  of  control  obscures  all 
independence  and  systematically  accustoms  him  to  depend- 
ence. *)  As  the  tragi-comic  story  of  Peter  Schlemihl  shows, 
one  cannot  lose  his  own  shadow  without  falling  into  the  sad- 
dest fatalities ;  but  the  shadow  of  a  constant  companion,  as 
in  the  pedagogical  system  of  the  Jesuits,  undermines  all 
naturalness.  And  if  one  endeavors  too  strictly  to  guard 
against  that  which  is  evil  and  forbidden,  the  intelligence  of 
the  pupils  reacts  in  deceit  against  such  efforts,  till  the  educa- 
tors are  amazed  that  such  crimes  as  come  often  to  light  can 
have  arisen  under  such  careful  control. — 

§  35.  If  there  should  appear  in  the  youth  any  decided  moral 
deformity  which  is  opposed  to  the  ideal  of  his  education,  the 
instructor  must  at  once  make  inquiry  as  to  the  history  of  its 
origin,  because  the  negative  and  the  positive  are  very  closely 
connected  in  his  being,  so  that  what  appears  to  be  negligence, 
rudeness,  immorality,  foolishness,  or  oddity,  may  arise  from 
some  real  needs  of  the  youth  which  in  their  development 
have  only  taken  a  wrong  direction. 

§  36.  If  it  should  appear  on  such  examination  that  the 
negative  action  was  only  a  product  of  wilful  ignorance,  of  ca- 
price, or  of  arbitrariness  on  the  part  of  the  youth,  then  this 
calls  for  a  simple  prohibition  on  the  part  of  the  educator,  no 


Reproof  and  Punishment.  19 

reason  being  assigned.  His  authority  must  be  sufficient  to 
the  pupil  without  any  reason.  Only  when  this  has  happened 
more  than  once,  and  the  youth  is  old  enough  to  understand, 
should  the  prohibition,  together  with  the  reason  therefor,  be 
given. 

— This  should,  however,  be  brief;  the  explanation  must 
retain  its  disciplinary  character,  and  must  not  become  ex- 
tended into  a  doctrinal  essay,  for  in  such  a  case  the  youth 
easily  forgets  that  it  was  his  own  misbehavior  which  was  the 
occasion  of  the  explanation.  The  statement  of  the  reason 
must  be  honest,  and  it  must  present  to  the  youth  the  point 
most  easy  for  him  to  seize.  False  reasons  are  morally  blama- 
ble  in  themselves,  and  they  tend  only  to  confuse.  It  is  a  great 
mistake  to  unfold  to  the  youth  the  broadening  consequences 
which  his  act  may  bring.  These  uncertain  possibilities  seem 
to  him  too  powerless  to  affect  him  particularly.  The  severe 
lecture  wearies  him,  especially  if  it  be  stereotyped,  as  is  apt 
to  be  the  case  with  fault-finding  and  talkative  instructors. 
But  more  unfortunate  is  it  if  the  painting  of  the  gloomy 
background  to  which  the  consequences  of  the  wrong-doing  of 
the  youth  may  lead,  should  fill  his  feelings  and  imagination 
prematurely  with  gloomy  fancies,  because  then  the  represen- 
tation has  led  him  one  step  toward  a  state  of  wretchedness 
which  in  the  future  man  may  become  fearful  depression  and 
degradation. — 

§  37.  If  the  censure  is  accompanied  with  a  threat  of  punish- 
ment, then  we  have  the  same  kind  of  reproof  which  in  daily 
life  we  call  "scolding;"  but  if  reproof  is  given,  the  pupil 
must  be  made  to  feel  that  it  is  in  earnest. 

§  38.  Only  when  all  other  efforts  have  failed,  is  punishment, 
which  is  the  real  negation  of  the  error,  the  transgression,  or 
the  vice,  justifiable.  Punishment  inflicts  intentionally  pain 
on  the  pupil,  and  its  object  is,  by  means  of  this  sensation,  to 
bring  him  to  reason,  a  result  which  neither  our  simple  prohi- 
bition, our  explanation,  nor  our  threat  of  punishment,  has 
been  able  to  reach.  But  the  punishment,  as  such,  must  not 
refer  to  the  subjective  totality  of  the  youth,  or  his  dispo- 
sition in  general,  but  only  to  the  act  which,  as  result,  is  a 
manifestation  of  the  deposition.  It  acts  mediately  on  the  dis- 
position, but  leaves  the  inner  being  untouched  directly ;  and 


20  Correction  VERSUS  Satisfaction  of  Justice. 

this  is  not  only  demanded  by  justice,  but  on  account  of  the 
sophistry  that  is  inherent  in  human  nature,  which  desires  to 
assign  to  a  deed  many  motives,  it  is  even  necessary. 

§  39.  Punishment  as  an  educational  means  is  nevertheless 
essentially  corrective,  since,  by  leading  the  youth  to  a  proper 
estimation  of  his  fault  and  a  positive  change  in  his  behavior, 
it  seeks  to  improve  him.  At  the  same  time  it  stands  as  a  sad 
indication  of  the  insufficiency  of  the  means  previously  used. 
On  no  account  should  the  youth  be  frightened  from  the  com- 
mission of  a  misdemeanor,  or  from  the  repetition  of  his  nega- 
tive deed  through  fear  of  punishment — a  system  which  leads 
always  to  terrorism  :  but,  although  it  may  have  this  effect,  it 
should,  before  all  things,  impress  upon  him  the  recognition 
of  the  fact  that  the  negative  is  not  allowed  to  act  as  it  will 
without  limitation,  but  rather  that  the  Good  and  the  True 
have  the  absolute  power  in  the  world,  and  that  they  are  never 
without  the  means  of  overcoming  anything  that  contradicts 
them. 

— In  the  statute-laws,  punishment  has  the  opposite  office. 
It  must  first  of  all  satisfy  justice,  and  only  after  this  is  done 
can  it  attempt  to  improve  the  guilty.  If  a  government  should 
proceed  on  the  same  basis  as  the  educator  it  would  mistake 
its  task,  because  it  has  to  deal  with  adults,  whom  it  elevates 
to  the  honorable  position,  of  responsibility  for  their  own  acts. 
The  state  must  not  go  back  to  the  psychological  ethical  gene- 
sis of  a  negative  deed.  It  must  assign  to  a  secondary  rank 
of  importance  the  biographical  moment  which  contains  the 
deed  in  process  and  the  circumstances  of  a  mitigating  charac- 
ter, and  it  must  consider  first  of  all  the  deed  in  itself.  It  is 
quite  otherwise  with  the  educator ;  for  he  deals  with  human 
beings  who  are  relatively  undeveloped,  and  who  are  only 
growing  toward  responsibility.  So  long  as  they  are  still 
under  the  care  of  a  teacher,  the  responsibility  of  their  deed 
belongs  in  part  to  him.  If  we  confound  the  standpoint  in 
which  punishment  is  administered  in  the  state  with  that  in 
education,  we  work  much  evil. — 

§  40.  Punishment  as  a  negation  of  a  negation,  considered 
as  an  educational  means,  cannot  be  determined  a  priori,  but 
must  always  be  modified  by  the  peculiarities  of  the  individual 
offender  and  by  the  peculiar  circumstances.  Its  administra- 


Three  Kinds  of  Punishment.  21 

tion  calls  for  the  exercise  of  the  ingenuity  and  tact  of  the 
educator. 

§  41.  Generally  speaking,  we  must  make  a  distinction  be- 
between  the  sexes,  as  well  as  between  the  different  periods  of 
3Touth ;  (1)  some  kind  of  corporal  punishment  is  most  suita- 
ble for  children,  (2)  isolation  for  older  boys  and  girls,  and  (3) 
punishment  based  on  the  sense  of  honor  for  young  men  and 
women. 

§  42.  (1)  Corporal  punishment  is  the  production  of  physical 
pain.  The  youth  is  generally  whipped,  and  this  kind  of  pun- 
ishment, provided  always  that  it  is  not  too  often  administered 
or  with  undue  severity,  is  the  proper  way  of  dealing  with  wil- 
ful defiance,  with  obstinate  carelessness,  or  with  a  really  per- 
verted will,  so  long  or  so  often  as  the  higher  perception  is 
closed  against  appeal.  The  imposing  of  other  physical  pun- 
ishment, e.g.  that  of  depriving  the  pupil  of  food,  partakes  of 
cruelty.  The  view  which  sees  in  the  rod  the  panacea  for  all 
the  teacher's  embarrassments  is  censurable,  but  equally  un- 
desirable is  the  false  sentimentality  which  assumes  that  the 
dignity  of  humanity  is  affected  by  a  blow  given  to  a  child, 
and  confounds  self-conscious  humanity  with  child-humanity, 
to  which  a  blow  is  the  most  natural  form  of  reaction,  in  which 
all  other  forms  of  influence  at  last  end. 

— The  fully-grown  man  ought  never  to  be  whipped,  because 
this  kind  of  punishment  reduces  him  to  the  level  of  the  child, 
and,  when  it  becomes  barbarous,  to  that  of  a  brute  animal, 
and  so  is  absolutely  degrading  to  him.  In  the  English  schools 
the  rod  is  much  used.  If  a  pupil  of  the  first  class  be  put  back 
into  the  second  at  Eton,  he,  although  before  exempt  from 
flogging,  becomes  liable  to  it.  But  however  necessary  this 
system  of  flogging  of  the  English  aristocracy  may  be  in  the 
discipline  of  their  schools,  flogging  in  the  English  army  is  a 
shameful  thing  for  the  free  people  of  Great  Britain. — 

§  43.  (2)  By  Isolation  we  remove  the  offender  temporarily 
from  the  society  of  his  fellows.  The  boy  left  alone,  cut  off 
from  all  companionship,  and  left  absolutely  to  himself,  suffers 
from  a  sense  of  helplessness.  The  time  passes  heavily,  and 
soon  he  is  very  anxious  to  be  allowed  to  return  to  the  com- 
pany of  parents,  brothers  and  sisters,  teachers  and  fellow- 
pupils. 


22  Sense  of  Honor  in  the  Pupil. 

— To  leave  a  child  entirely  to  himself  without  any  supervi- 
sion, even  if  one  shuts  him  up  in  a  dark  room,  is  as  mistaken 
a  practice  as  to  leave  a  few  together  without  supervision, 
as  is  too  often  done  where  they  are  kept  after  school,  when 
they  give  the  freest  rein  to  their  childish  wantonness  and 
commit  the  wildest  pranks. — 

§  44.  (3)  This  way  of  isolating  a  child  does  not  touch  his 
sense  of  honor  at  all,  and  is  soon  forgotten  because  it  relates  to 
only  one  side  of  his  conduct.  It  is  quite  different  from  pun- 
ishment based  on  the  sense  of  honor,  which,  in  a  formal 
manner,  shuts  the  youth  out  from  companionship  because 
he  has  attacked  the  principle  which  holds  society  together, 
and  for  this  reason  can  no  longer  be  considered  as  belong- 
ing to  it.  Honor  is  the  recognition  of  one  individual  by 
others  as  their  equal.  Through  his  error,  or  it  may  be  his 
crime,  he  has  simply  made  himself  unequal  to  them,  and  in 
so  far  has  separated  himself  from  them,  so  that  his  banish- 
ment from  their  society  is  only  the  outward  expression  of  the 
real  isolation  which  he  himself  has  brought  to  pass  in  his 
inner  nature,  and  which  he  by  means  of  his  negative  act  only 
betrayed  to  the  outer  world.  Since  the  punishment  founded  on 
the  sense  of  honor  affects  the  whole  ethical  man  and  makes 
a  lasting  impression  upon  his  memory,  extreme  caution  is 
necessary  in  its  application  lest  a  permanent  injury  be  in- 
flicted upon  the  character.  The  idea  of  his  perpetual  con- 
tinuance in  disgrace,  destroys  in  a  man  all  aspiration  for 
improvement. 

— Within  the  family  this  feeling  of  honor  cannot  be  so  ac- 
tively developed,  because  every  member  of  it  is  bound  to 
every  other  immediately  by  natural  ties,  and  hence  is  equal 
to  every  other.  Within  its  sacred  circle,  he  who  has  isolated 
himself  is  still  beloved,  though  it  may  be  through  tears. 
However  bad  may  be  the  deed  he  has  committed,  he  is  never 
given  up,  but  the  deepest  sympathy  is  felt  for  him  because 
he  is  still  brother,  father,  &c.  But  first  in  the  contact  of  one 
family  with  another,  and  still  more  in  the  contact  of  an  indi- 
vidual with  any  institution  which  is  founded  not  on  natural 
ties,  but  is  set  over  against  him  as  a  distinct  object,  this  feel- 
ing of  honor  appears.  In  the  school,  and  in  the  matter  of 
ranks  and  classes  in  a  school,  this  is  very  important. — 


Limits  of  Education.  23 

§  45.  It  is  important  to  consider  well  this  gradation  of 
punishment  (which,  starting  with  sensuous  physical  pain, 
passes  through  the  external  teleology  of  temporary  isolation 
up  to  the  idealism  of  the  sense  of  honor),  both  in  relation  to 
the  different  ages  at  which  they  are  appropriate  and  to  the 
training  which  they  bring  with  them.  Every  punishment 
must  be  considered  merely  as  a  means  to  some  end,  and,  in  so 
far,  as  transitory.  The  pupil  must  always  be  deeply  conscious 
that  it  is  very  painful  to  his  instructor  to  be  obliged  to  pun- 
ish him.  This  pathos  of  another's  sorrow  for  the  sake  of  his 
cure  which  he  perceives  in  the  mien,  in  the  tone  of  the  voice, 
in  the  delay  with  which  the  punishment  is  administered,  will 
become  a  puri  fying  fire  for  his  soul. 

in. 

The  Limits  of  Education. 

§  46.  The  form  of  Education  reaches  its  limits  with  the  idea 
of  punishment,  because  this  is  the  attempt  to  subsume  the 
negative  reality  and  to  make  it  conformable  to  its  positive 
idea.  But  the  limits  of  Education  are  found  in  the  idea  of  its 
nature,  which  is  to  fashion  the  individual  into  theoretical  and 
practical  rationality.  The  authority  of  the  Educator  at  last 
becomes  imperceptible,  and  it  passes  over  into  advice  arid  ex- 
ample, and  obedience  changes  from  blind  conformity  to  free 
gratitude  and  attachment.  Individuality  wears  off  its  rough 
edges,  and  is  transfigured  into  the  universality  and  necessity 
of  Reason  without  losing  in  this  process  its  identity.  Work 
becomes  enjoyment,  and  he  finds  his  play  in  a  change  of 
activity.  The  youth  takes  possession  of  himself,  and  can  be 
left  to  himself. 

— There  are  two  widely  differing  views  with  regard  to  the 
limits  of  Education.  One  lays  great  stress  on  the  weakness 
of  the  pupil  and  the  power  of  the  teacher.  According  to  this 
view,  Education  has  for  its  province  the  entire  formation  of 
the  youth.  The  despotism  of  this  view  often  manifests  itself 
where  large  numbers  are  to  be  educated  together,  and  with 
very  undesirable  results,  because  it  assumes  that  the  indivi- 
dual pupil  is  only  a  specimen  of  the  whole,  as  if  the  school 
were  a  great  factory  where  each  piece  of  goods  is  to  be 
stamped  exactly  like  all  the  rest.  Individuality  is  reduced 


24  The  Limits  of  Individuality. 

by  the  tyranny  of  such  despotism  to  one  uniform  level  till  all 
originality  is  destroyed,  as  in  cloisters,  barracks,  and  orphan 
asylums,  where  only  one  individual  seems  to  exist. ,  There  is 
a  kind  of  Pedagogy  also  which  fancies  that  one  can  thrust 
into  or  out  of  the  individual  pupil  what  one  will.  \  This  may 
be  called  a  superstitious  belief  in  the  power  of  Education. — 
The  opposite  extreme  disbelieves  this,  and  advances  the  pol- 
icy which  lets  alone  and  does  nothing,  urging  that  individu- 
ality is  unconquerable,  and  that  often  the  most  careful  and 
far-sighted  education  fails  of  reaching  its  aim  in  so  far  as  it 
is  opposed  to  the  nature  of  the  youth,  and  that  this  individu- 
ality has  made  of  no  avail  all  efforts  toward  the  obtaining  of 
any  end  which  was  opposed  to  it.  This  representation  of  the 
fruitlessness  of  all  pedagogical  efforts  engenders  an  indiffer- 
ence towards  it  which  would  leave,  as  a  result,  only  a  sort  of 
vegetation  of  individuality  growing  at  hap-hazard. — } 

§  47.  The  limit  of  Education  is  (1)  a  Subjective  one,  a 
limit  made  by  the  individuality  of  the  youth.  This  is  a 
definite  limit.  Whatever  does  not  exist  in  this  individu- 
ality'as  a  possibility  cannot  be  developed  from  it.  Education 
can  only  lead  and  assist ;  it  cannot  create.  What  Nature 
has  denied  to  a  man,  Education  cannot  give  him  any  more 
than  it  is  able,  on  the  other  hand,  to  annihilate  entirely  his 
original  gifts,  although  it  is  true  that  his  talents  may  be 
suppressed,  distorted,  and  measurably  destroyed.  But  the 
decision  of  the  question  in  what  the  real  essence  of  any  one's 
individuality  consists  can  never  be  made  with  certainty  till 
he  has  left  behind  him  his  years  of  development,  because  it 
is  then  only  that  he  first  arrives  at  the  consciousness  of  his 
entire  self;  besides,  at  this  critical  time,  in  the  first  place, 
much  knowledge  only  superficially  acquired  will  drop  off; 
and  again,  talents,  long  slumbering  and  unsuspected,  may 
first  make  their  appearance.  Whatever  has  been  forced  upon 
a  child  in  opposition  to  his  individuality,  whatever  has  been 
only  driven  into  him  and  has  lacked  receptivity  on  his 
side,  or  a  rational  ground  on  the  side  of  culture,  remains  at- 
tached to  his  being  only  as  an  external  ornament,  a  foreign 
outgrowth  which  enfeebles  his  own  proper  character. 

— We  must  distinguish  from  that  affectation  which  arises 
through  a  misunderstanding  of  the  limit  of  individuality,  the 


Limit  in  the  Means  of  Education.  25 

way  which  many  children  and  young  persons  have  of  sup- 
posing when  they  see  models  finished  and  complete  in  grown 
persons,  that  they  themselves  are  endowed  by  Nature  with 
the  power  to  develop  into  the  same.  When  they,  see  a  real- 
ity which  corresponds  to  their  own  possibility,  the  presenti- 
ment of  a  like  or  a  similar  attainment  moves  them  to  an 
imitation  of  it  as  a  model  personality.  This  may  be  some- 
times carried  so  far  as  to  be  disagreeable  or  ridiculous,  but 
should  not  be  too  strongly  censured,  because  it  springs  from 
a  positive  striving  after  culture,  and  needs  only  proper 
direction. — 

§  48.  (2)  The  Objective  limit  of  Education  lies  in  the 
means  which  can  be  appropriated  for  it.  That  the  talent  for 
a  certain  culture  shall  be  present  is  certainly  the  first  thing ; 
but  the  cultivation  of  this  talent  is  the  second,  and  no  less 
necessary.  But  how  much  cultivation  can  be  given  to  it  ex- 
tensively and  intensively  depends  upon  the  means  used,  and 
these  again  are  conditioned  by  the  material  resources  of  the 
family  to  which  each  one  belongs.  The  greater  and  more 
valuable  the  means  of  culture  which  are  found  in  a  family 
are,  the  greater  is  the  immediate  advantage  which  the  culture 
of  each  one  has  at  the  start.  With  regard  to  many  of  the 
arts  and  sciences  this  limit  of  education  is  of  great  signifi- 
cance. But  the  means  alone  are  of  no  avail.  The  finest  edu- 
cational apparatus  will  produce  no  fruit  where  correspond- 
ing talent  is  wanting,  while  on  the  other  hand  talent  often 
accomplishes  incredible  feats  with  very  limited  means,  and,  if 
the  way  is  only  once  open,  makes  of  itself  a  centre  of  attrac- 
tion which  draws  to  itself  with  magnetic  power  the  necessary 
means.  The  moral  culture  of  each  one  is  however,  fortu- 
nately from  its  very  nature,  out  of  the  reach  of  such  de- 
pendence. 

—In  considering  the  limit  made  by  individuality  we  recog- 
nize the  side  of  truth  in  that  indifference  which  considers 
Education  entirely  superfluous,  and  in  considering  the  means 
of  culture  we  find  the  truth  in  the  other  extreme  of  pedagogi- 
cal despotism,  which  fancies  that  it  can  command  whatever 
culture  it  chooses  for  any  one  without  regard  to  his  indi- 
viduality.— 

§  49.  (3)  The  Absolute  limit  of  Education  is  the  time  when 
the  youth  has  apprehended  the  problem  which  he  has  to 


26  Arrival  at  the  age  of  Majority. 

solve,  has  learned  to  know  the  means  at  his  disposal,  and  has 
acquired  a  certain  facility  in  using  them.  The  end  and  aim 
of  Education  is  the  emancipation  of  the  youth.  It  strives  to 
make  him  self-dependent,  and  as  soon  as  he  has  become  so 
it  wishes  to  retire  and  to  be  able  to  leave  him  to  the  sole 
responsibility  of  his  actions.  To  treat  the  youth  after  he  has 
passed  this  point  of  time  still  as  a  youth,  contradicts  the  very 
idea  of  Education,  which  idea  finds  its  fulfilment  in  the  attain- 
ment of  majority  by  the  pupil.  Since  the  accomplishment  of 
education  cancels  the  original  inequality  between  the  educa- 
tor and  the  pupil,  nothing  is  more  oppressing,  nay,  revolting 
to  the  latter  than  to  be  prevented  by  a  continued  dependence 
from  the  enjoyment  of  the  freedom  which  he  has  earned. 

— The  opposite  extreme  of  the  protracting  of  Education  be- 
yond its  proper  time  is  necessarily  the  undue  hastening  of 
the  Emancipation. — The  question  whether  one  is  prepared 
for  freedom  has  been  often  opened  in  politics.  When  any 
people  have  gone  so  far  as  to  ask  this  question  themselves, 
it  is  no  longer  a  question  whether  that  people  are  prepared 
for  it,  for  without  the  consciousness  of  freedom  this  question 
would  never  have  occurred  to  them. — 

§  50.  Although  educators  must  now  leave  the  youth  free, 
the  necessity  of  further  culture  for  him  is  still  imperative. 
But  it  will  no  longer  come  directly  through  them.  Their 
pre-arranged,  pattern-making  work  is  now  supplanted  by  self- 
education.  Each  sketches  for  himself  an  ideal  to  which  in 
his  life  he  seeks  to  approximate  every  day. 

— In  the  work  of  self-culture  one  friend  can  help  another 
by  advice  and  example ;  but  he  cannot  educate,  for  education 
presupposes  inequality. — The  necessities  of  human  nature 
produce  societies  in  which  equals  seek  to  influence  each 
other  in  a  pedagogical  way,  since  they  establish  by  certain 
steps  of  culture  different  classes.  They  presuppose  Education 
in  the  ordinary  sense.  But  they  wish  to  bring  about  Educa- 
tion in  a  higher  sense,  and  therefore  they  veil  the  last  form  of 
their  ideal  in  the  mystery  of  secrecy. — To  one  who  lives  on 
contented  with  himself  and  without  the  impulse  toward  self- 
culture,  unless  his  unconcern  springs  from  his  belonging  to 
a  savage  state  of  society,  the  Germans  give  the  name  of 
Philistine,  and  he  is  always  repulsive  to  the  student  who  is 
intoxicated  with  an  ideal. 


SECOND   PART. 
The  Special  Elements  of  Education. 

§  51.  Education  in  general  consists  in  the  development  in 
man  of  his  inborn  theoretical  and  practical  rationality;  it 
takes  on  the  form  of  labor,  which  changes  that  state  or 
condition,  which  appears  at  first  only  as  a  mere  concep- 
tion, into  a  fixed  habit,  and  transfigures  individuality  into 
a  worthy  humanity.  Education  ends  in  that  emancipa- 
tion of  the  youth  which  places  him  on  his  own  feet.  The 
special  elements  which  form  the  concrete  content  of  all  Edu- 
cation in  general  are  the  Life,  Cognition,  and  Will  of  man. 
Without  life  mind  has  no  phenomenal  reality ;  without  cog- 
nition, no  genuine,  i.e.  conscious,  will;  and  without  will, 
no  self-assurance  of  life  and  of  cognition.  It  is  true  that 
these  three  elements  are  in  real  existence  inseparable,  and 
that  consequently  in  the  dialectic  they  continually  pass  over 
into  one  another.  But  none  the  less  on  this  account  do  they 
themselves  prescribe  their  own  succession,  and  they  have 
a  relative  and  periodical  ascendancy  over  each  other.  In 
Infancy,  up  to  the  fifth  or  sixth  year,  the  purely  physical 
development  takes  the  precedence ;  Childhood  is  the  time  of 
learning,  in  a  proper  sense,  an  act  by  which  the  child  gains 
for  himself  the  picture  of  the  world  such  as  mature  minds, 
through  experience  and  insight,  have  painted  it ;  and,  finally. 
Youth  is  the  transition  period  to  practical  activity,  to  which 
the  self-determination  of  the  will  must  give  the  first  impulse. 

§  52.  The  classification  of  the  special  elements  of  Peda- 
gogics is  hence  very  simple :  (1)  the  Physical,  (2)  the  Intel- 
lectual, (3)  the  Practical.  (We  sometimes  apply  to  these  the 
words  Orthobiotics,  Didactics,  and  Pragmatics.) 

— ./Esthetic  training  constitutes  only  an  element  of  the  edu- 
cation of  Intellectual  Education,  just  as  social,  moral,  and 
religious  training  form  elements  of  Practical  Education.  But 
because  these  latter  elements  concern  themselves  with  what 


28  Physical  Education. 

is  external,  the  name  "  Pragmatics  "  is  appropriate.  In  this 
sphere,  Pedagogics  should  coincide  with  Politics,  Ethics,  and 
Religion  ;  but  it  is  distinguished  from  them  through  the  apti- 
tude which  it  brings  with  it  of  putting  into  practice  the  prob- 
lems of  the  other  three.  The  scientific  arrangement  of  these 
ideas  must  therefore  show  that  the  former,  as  the  more  ab- 
stract, constitutes  the  conditions,  and  the  latter,  as  the  more 
concrete,  the  ground  of  the  former,  which  are  presupposed ; 
and  in  consequence  of  this  it  is  itself  their  principal  teleo- 
logical  presupposition,  just  as  in  man  the  will  presupposes 
the  cognition,  and  cognition  life ;  while,  at  the  same  time, 
life,  in  a  deeper  sense,  must  presuppose  cognition,  and  cog- 
nition will.— 

FIRST  DIVISION. 

PHYSICAL  EDUCATION. 

§  53.  The  art  of  living  rightly  is  based  upon  a  comprehen- 
sion of  the  process  of  Life.  Life  is  the  restless  dialectic 
which  ceaselessly  transforms  the  inorganic  into  the  organic, 
but  at  the  same  time  creates  out  of  itself  another  inorganic, 
in  which  it  separates  from  itself  whatever  part  of  the  inor- 
ganic has  not  been  assimilated,  which  it  took  up  as  a  stimu- 
lant, and  that  which  has  become  dead  and  burned  out.  The 
organism  is  healthy  when  its  reality  corresponds  to  this  idea 
of  the  dialectic,  of  a  life  which  moves  up  and  down,  to  and 
fro ;  of  formation  and  re-formation,  of  organizing  and  disor- 
ganizing. All  the  rules  for  Physical  Education,  or  of  Hygi- 
ene, are  derived  from  this  conception. 

§  54.  It  follows  from  this  that  the  change  of  the  inorganic 
to  the  organic  is  going  on  not  only  in  the  organism  as  a  whole, 
but  also  in  its  every  organ  and  in  every  part  of  every  organ ; 
and  that  the  organic  as  soon  as  it  has  attained  its  highest 
point  of  energy,  is  again  degraded  to  the  inorganic  and 
thrown  out.  Every  cell  has  its  history.  Activity  is,  there- 
fore, not  contradictory  to  the  organism,  but  favors  in  it  the 
natural  progressive  and  regressive  metamorphosis.  This  pro- 
cess can  go  on  harmoniously ;  that  is,  the  organism  can  be 
in  health  only  when  not  only  the  whole  organism,  but  each 
special  organ,  is  allowed,  after  its  productive  activity,  the 
corresponding  rest  and  recreation  necessary  for  its  self- 
renewal.  We  have  this  periodicity  exemplified  in  waking 


Dietetics.      .  29 

and  sleeping,  also  in  exhalation  and  inhalation,  excretion 
and  taking  in  of  material.  When  we  have  discovered  the 
relative  antagonism  of  the  organs  and  their  periodicity,  we 
have  found  the  secret  of  the  perennial  renewal  of  life. 

§  55.  Fatigue  makes  its  appearance  when  any  organ,  or  the 
organism  in  general,  is  denied  time  for  the  return  movement 
into  itself  and  for  renovation.  It  is  possible  for  some  one 
organ,  as  if  isolated,  to  exercise  a  great  and  long- continued 
activity,  even  to  the  point  of  fatigue,  while  the  other  organs 
rest ;  as  e.g.  the  lungs,  in  speaking,  while  the  other  parts  are 
quiet ;  on  the  other  hand,  it  is  not  well  to  speak  and  run  at 
the  same  time.  The  idea  that  one  can  keep  the  organism  in 
better  condition  by  inactivity,  is  an  error  which  rests  upon  a 
mechanical  apprehension  of  life.  Equally  false  is  the  idea 
that  health  depends  upon  the  quantity  and  excellence  of  the 
food;  without  the  force  to  assimilate  it,  it  acts  fatally  rather 
than  stimulatingly.  True  strength  arises  only  from  actimty. 

— The  later  physiologists  will  gradually  destroy,  in  the 
system  of  culture  of  modern  people,  the  preconceived  notion 
which  recommended  for  the  indolent  and  lovers  of  pleasure 
powerful  stimulants,  very  fat  food,  &c.  Excellent  works  ex- 
ist on  this  question.— 

§  56.  Physical  Education,  as  it  concerns  the  repairing,  the 
motor,  or  the  nervous,  activities,  is  divided  into  (1)  Diatetics, 
(2)  Gymnastics,  (3)  Sexual  Education.  In  real  life  these  ac- 
tivities are  scarcely  separable,  but  for  the  sake  of  exposition 
we  must  consider  them  apart.  In  the  regular  development  of 
the  human  being,  moreover,  the  repairing  system  has  a  rela- 
tive precedence  to  the  motor  system,  and  the  latter  to  the 
sexual  maturity.  But  Pedagogics  can  treat  of  these  ideas 
only  with  reference  to  the  infant,  the  child,  and  the  youth. 

FIRST      CHAPTER. 

Dietetics. 

§  57.  Dietetics  is  the  art  of  sustaining  the  normal  repair  of 
the  organism.  Since  this  organism  is,  in  the  concrete,  an 
individual  one,  the  general  principles  of  dietetics  must,  in 
their  manner  of  application,  vary  with  the  sex,  the  age,  the 
temperament,  the  occupation,  and  the  other  conditions,  of  the- 
individual.  Pedagogics  as  a  science  can  only  go  over  its  gen- 


30  Dietetics. 

oral  principles,  and  these  can  be  named  briefly.  If  we  attempt 
to  speak  of  details,  we  fall  easily  into  triviality.  So  very 
important  to  the  whole  life  of  man  is  the  proper  care  of  his 
physical  nature  during  the  first  stages  of  its  development, 
that  the  science  of  Pedagogics  must  not  omit  to  consider  the 
different  systems  which  different  people,  according  to  their 
time,  locality,  and  culture,  have  made  for  themselves ;  many, 
it  is  tru0£  embracingj^ome  preposterous  ideas,  but  in  general 
never  devoid  of  j  ustification  in  their  time. 

§  58.  The  infant's  first  nourishment  must  be  the  milk  of  its 
mother.  The  substitution  of  a  nurse  should  be  only  an  ex- 
ception justified  alone  by  the  illness  of  the  mother;  as  a 
rule,  as  happens  in  France,  it  is  simply  bad,  because  a  for- 
eign physical  and  moral  element  is  introduced  into  the  family 
through  the  nurse.  The  milk  of  an  animal  can  never  be  as 
good  for  a  child. 

§  59.  When  the  teeth  appear,  the  child  is  first  able  to  eat 
solid  food ;  but,  until  the  second  teeth  come,  he  should  be  fed 
principally  on  light,  fluid  nourishment,  and  on  vegetable  diet. 

§  60.  When  the  second  teeth  are  fully  formed,  the  human 
being  is  ready  for  animal  as  well  as  vegetable  food.  Too 
much  meat  is  not  good ;  but  it  is  an  anatomical  error  to  sup- 
pose that  man,  ~by  the  structure  of  his  stomach,  was  origi- 
nally formed  to  live  alone  on  vegetable  diet,  and  that  animal 
food  is  a  sign  of  his  degeneracy. 

— The  Hindoos,  who  subsist  principally  on  vegetable  diet, 
are  not,  as  has  been  often  asserted,  a  very  gentle  race :  a 
glance  into  their  history,  or  into  their  erotic  poetry,  shows 
them  to  be  quite  as  passionate  as  other  peoples.— 

§  61.  Man  is  omnivorous.  Children  have  therefore  a  natu- 
ral desire  to  taste  of  everything.  For  them  eating  and  drink- 
ing possess  a  kind  of  poetry ;  there  is  a  theoretic  ingredient 
blended  with  the  material  enjoyment.  They  have,  on  this 
account,  a  proneness  to  indulge,  which  is  deserving  of  pun- 
ishment only  when  it  is  combined  with  disobedience  and 
secrecy,  or  when  it  betrays  cunning  and  greediness. 

§  62.  Children  need  much  sleep,  because  they  are  undergo- 
ing the  most  active  progressive  metamorphosis.  In  after-life 
sleep  and  waking  should  be  subjected  to  periodical  regula- 
tion, but  not  too  exactly. 


Gymnastics.  31 

g  63.  The  clothing  of  children  should  be  adapted  to  them ; 
i.e.  it  should  be  cut  according  to  the  shape  of  the  body,  and 
it  must  be  loose  enough  to  allow  free  play  to  their  desire  for 
movement. 

—With  regard  to  this  as  well  as  to  the  sleeping  arrange- 
ments for  children,  less  in  regard  to  food  —  which  is  often 
too  highly  spiced  and  too  liberal  in  tea,  coffee,  &c. — our  age 
has  become  accustomed  to  a  very  rational  system.  The  cloth- 
ing of  children  must  be  not  only  comfortable,  but  it  should  be 
made  of  simple  and  cheap  material,  so  that  the  free  enjoy- 
ment of  the  child  may  not  be  marred  by  the  constant  internal 
anxiety  that  a  rent  or  a  spot  may  bring  him  a  fault-finding 
or  angry  word.  From  too  great  care  as  to  clothing,  may  arise 
a  meanness  of  mind  which  at  last  pays  too  great  respect  to 
it,  -or  an  empty  frivolity.  This  last  may  be  induced  by  dress- 
ing children  too  conspicuously.— 

§  64.  Cleanliness  is  a  virtue  to  which  children  should  be 
accustomed  for  the  sake  of  their  physical  well-being,  as  well 
as  because,  in  a  moral  point  of  view,  it  is  of  the  greatest  sig- 
nificance. Cleanliness  will  not  endure  that  things  shall  be 
deprived  of  their  proper  individuality  through  the  elemental 
chaos.  It  retains  each  as  distinguished  from  every  other. 
While  it  makes  necessary  to  man  pure  air,  cleanliness  of 
surroundings,  of  clothing,  and  of  his  body,  it  develops  in  him 
a  sense  by  which  he  perceives  accurately  the  particular  lim- 
its of  being  in  general. 

SECOND      CHAPTER. 

Gymnastics. 

§  65.  Gymnastics  is  the  art  of  systematic  training  of  the 
muscular  system.  The  action  of  the  voluntary  muscles,  which 
are  regulated  by  the  nerves  of  the  brain,  in  distinction  from 
the  involuntary  automatic  muscles  depending  on  the  spinal 
cord,  while  they  are  the  means  of  man's  intercourse  with  the 
external  world,  at  the  same  time  re-act  upon  the  automatic 
muscles  in  digestion  and  sensation.  Since  the  movement  of 
the  muscular  fibres  consists  in  the  change  of  contraction  and 
expansion,  it  follows  that  Gymnastics  must  bring  about  a 
change  of  movement  which  shall  both  contract  and  expand 
-the  muscles. 


32  Gymnastics. 

§  66.  The  system  of  gymnastic  exercise  of  any  nation  cor- 
responds always  to  its  way  of  lighting.  So  long  as  this 
consists  in  the  personal  struggle  of  a  hand-to-hand  contest,. 
Gymnastics  will  seek  to  increase  as  much  as  possible  indi- 
vidual strength  and  adroitness.  As  soon  as  the  far-reaching- 
missiles  projected  from  iire-arms  become  the  centre  of  all  the 
operations  of  war,  the  individual  is  lost  in  a  body  of  men,  out  • 
of  which  he  emerges  only  relatively  in  sharp-shooting,  in  the 
charge,  in  single  contests,  and  in  the  retreat.  Because  of  this 
incorporation  of  the  individual  in  the  one  great  whole,  and 
because  of  the  resulting  unimportance  of  personal  bravery r 
modern  Gymnastics  can  never  be  the  same  as  it  was  in  an- 
cient times,  even  putting  out  of  view  the  fact  that  the  subjec- 
tiveness  of  the  modern  spirit  is. too  great  to  allow  it  to  devote 
so  much  attention  to  the  care  of  the  body,  and  the  admira- 
tion of  its  beauty,  as  was  given  by  the  Greeks. 

— The  Turners'  unions  and  halls  in  Germany  belong  to  the 
period  of  subjective  enthusiasm  of  the  German  student  popu- 
lation, and  had  a  political  significance.  At  present,  they 
have  been  brought  back  to  their  proper  place  as  an  Educa- 
tional means,  and  they  are  of  great  value,  especially  in  large 
cities.  Among  the  mountains,  and  even  in  the  country  townsy 
a  special  institution  for  bodily  exercise  is  less  necessary,  for 
the  matter  takes  care  of  itself.  The  attractions  of  the  situa- 
tion and  the  games  help  to  foster  it.  In  great  cities,  how- 
ever, the  houses  are  often  destitute  of  halls  or  open  places 
where  the  children  can  take  exercise  in  their  leisure  moments. 
In  these  cities,  therefore,  there  must  be  some  gymnastic  hall 
where  the  sense  of  fellowship  may  be  developed.  Gym- 
nastics are  not  so  essential  for  girls.  In  its  place,  dancing  is 
sufficient,  and  gymnastics  should  be  employed  for  them  only 
where  there  exists  any  special  weakness  or  deformity,  when 
they  may  be  used  as  a  restorative  or  preservative.  They  are 
not  to  become  Amazons.  The  bay,  on  the  contrary,  needs  to 
acquire  the  feeling  of  good-fellowship.  It  is  true  that  the 
school  develops  this  in  a  measure,  but  not  fully,  because  it 
determines  the  standing  of  the  boy  through  his  intellectual 
ambition.  The  academical  youth  will* not  take  much  interest 
in  special  gymnastics  unless  he  can  gain  preeminence  there- 
in. Running,  leaping,  climbing,  and  lifting,  are  too  mean- 


Gymnastics.  33 

ingless  for  their  more  mature  spirits.  They  can  take  a  lively 
interest  only  in  the  exercises  which  have  a  warlike  charac- 
ter. With  the  Prussians,  and  some  other  German  states,  the 
art  of  Gymastics  identifies  itself  with  military  concerns. 

§  67.  The  real  idea  of  Gymnastics  must  always  be  that  the 
spirit  shall  rule  over  its  naturalness,  and  shall  make  this  an 
energetic  and  docile  servant  of  its  will.  Strength  and  adroit- 
ness must  unite  and  become  confident  skill.  Strength,  car- 
ried to  its  extreme  produces  the  athlete ;  adroitness,  to  its 
extreme,  the  acrobat.  Pedagogics  must  avoid  both.  All  im- 
mense force,  fit  only  for  display,  must  be  held  as  far  away 
as  the  idea  of  teaching  Gymnastics  with  the  motive  of  utility ; 
e.g.  that  by  swimming  one  may  save  his  life  when  he  falls 
into  the  water,  &c.  Among  other  things,  this  may  also  be  a 
consequence ;  but  the  principle  in  general  must  always  re- 
main: the  necessity  of  the  spirit  of  subjecting  its  organism  of 
the  body  to  the  condition  of  a  perfect  means,  so  that  it  may 
never  find  itself  limited  by  it. 

§  68.  Gymnastic  exercises  form  a  series  from  simple  to 
compound.  There  appears  to  be  so  much  arbitrariness  in 
them  that  it  is  always  very  agreeable  to  the  mind  to  find,  on 
nearer  inspection,  some  reason.  The  movements  are  (1)  of 
the  lower,  (2)  of  the  upper  extremities  ;  (3)  of  the  whole  bo- 
dy, with  relative  striking  out,  now  of  the  upper,  now  of  the- 
lower  extremities.  We  distinguish,  therefore,  foot,  arm,  and 
trunk  movements. 

§  69.  (1)  The  first  series  of  foot-movements  is  the  most 
important,  and  conditions  the  carriage  of  all  the  rest  of  the 
body.  They  are  (a)  walking ;  (b)  running ;  (c)  leaping  :  each 
of  these  being  capable  of  modifications,  as  the  high  and  the- 
low  leap,  the  prolonged  and  the  quick  run.  Sometimes  we 
give  to  these  different  names,  according  to  the  means  used, 
as  walking  on  stilts  ;  skating ;  leaping  with  a  staff,  or  by 
means  of  the  hands,  as  vaulting.  Dancing  is  only  the  art  of 
the  graceful  mingling  of  these  movements ;  and  balancing,, 
only  one  form  of  walking. 

§  70.  (2)  The  second  series  embraces  the  arm-movements,, 
and  it  repeats  also  the  movements  of  the  first  series.  It  in- 
cludes (a)  lifting ;  (6)  swinging ;  (c)  throwing.  All  pole  and 
bar  practice  comes  under  lifting,  also  climbing  and  carrying, 


34  Gymnastics. 

Under  throwing,  come  quoit  and  ball- thro  wing,  and  nine-pin 
playing.  All  these  movements  are  distinguished  from  each 
other,  not  only  quantitatively  but  also  qualitatively,  in  the 
position  of  the  stretched  and  bent  muscles ;  e.g.  running  is 
something  different  from  quick  walking. 

§  71.  (3)  The  third  series,  or  that  of  movements  of  the 
whole  body,  differs  from  the  preceding  two,  which  should 
precede  it,  in  this,  thjat  it  brings  the  organism  into  contact 
with  a  living  object,  which  it  has  to  overcome  through  its 
own  activity.  This  object  is  sometimes  an  element,  some- 
times an  animal,  sometimes  a  man.  Our  divisions  then  are 
(a)  swimming  ;  (b)  riding ;  (c)  fighting,  or  single  combat.  In 
swimming,  one  must  conquer  the  yielding  liquid  material  of 
water  by  arm  and  foot  movements.  The  resistance  met  on 
account  of  currents  and  waves  may  be  very  great,  but  it  is 
still  that  of  a  will-less  and  passive  object.  But  in  riding 
man  has  to  deal  with  a  self-willed  being  whose  vitality  calls 
forth  not  only  his  strength  but  also  his  intelligence  and  cour- 
age. The  exercise  is  therefore  very  complicated,  and  the  rider 
must  be  able  perpetually  to  individualize  it  according  to  the 
necessity ;  at  the  same  time,  he  must  give  attention  not  only 
to  the  horse,  but  to  the  nature  of  the  ground  and  the  entire 
surroundings.  But  it  is  only  in  the  struggle  with  men  that 
Gymnastics  reaches  its  highest  point,  for  in  this  man  offers 
himself  as  a  living  antagonist  to  man  and  brings  him  into 
danger.  It  is  no  longer  the  spontaneous  activity  of  an  unrea- 
soning existence ;  it  is  the  resistance  and  attack  of  intelli- 
gence itself  with  which  he  has  to  deal.  Fighting,  or  single 
•combat,  is  the  truly  chivalrous  exercise,  and  this  may  be 
combined  with  horsemanship. 

—In  the  single  combat  there  is  found  also  a  qualitative 
modification,  whence  we  have  three  systems :  (a)  boxing  and 
wrestling ;  (&)  fencing  with  sticks ;  and  (c)  rapier  and  broad- 
sword fencing.  In  the  first,  which  was  cultivated  to  its  high- 
est^ point  among  the  Greeks,  direct  immediateness  rules.  In 
the  boxing  of  the  English,  a  sailor-like  propensity  of  this 
nation,  fist-fighting  is  still  retained  as  a  custom.  Fencing 
with  a  stick  is  found  among  the  French  mechanics,  the  so- 
called  compagnons.  Men  often  use  the  cane  in  their  contests ; 
it  is  a  sort  of  refined  club.  When  we  use  the  sword  or  rapier, 


Sexual  Education.  35 

the  weapon  becomes  deadly.  The  Southern  Europeans  excel 
in  the  use  of  the  rapier,  the  Germans  in  that  of  the  sword. 
But  the  art  of  single  combat  is  much  degenerated,  and  the 
pistol-duel",  through  its  increasing  frequency,  proves  this  .de- 
generation.— 

T  H  I  R  D       CHAPTER. 

Sexual  Education. 

NOTE. — The  paragraphs  relating  to  Sexual  Education  are  designed  for  parents 
rather  than  for  teachers,  the  parent  being  the  natural  educator  of  the  family  and 
sexual  education  relating  to  the  preservation  and  continuance  of  the  family. 
This  chapter  is  accordingly,  for  the  most  part,  omitted  here.  It  contains  judi- 
cious reflections,  invaluable  to  parents  and  guardians. — Tr. 

§  72.  Gymnastic  exercises  fall  naturally  into  a  systematic 
arrangement  determined  by  the  chronological  order  of  devel- 
opment through  infancy,  childhood,  and  youth.  Walking, 
running,  and  leaping  belong,  to  the  first  period ;  lifting,  swing- 
ing, and  throwing,  to  the  second ;  swimming,  riding,  and 
bodily  contests,  to  the  third,  and  these  last  may  also  be  con- 
tinued into  manhood.  But  with  the  arrival  at  youth,  a  new 
epoch  makes  its  appearance  in  the  organism.  It  prepares 
itself  for  the  propagation  of  the  species.  It  expands  the  indi- 
vidual through  the  need  which  he  feels  of  uniting  himself 
witli  another  individual  of  the  same  species,  but  who  is  a 
polar  opposite  to  him,  in  order  to  preserve  the  two  in  a  new 
individual.  The  blood  rushes  more  vigorously ;  the  muscu- 
lar strength  becomes  more  easily  roused  into  activity;  an 
indefinable  impulse,  a  sweet  melancholy  takes  possession 
of  the  being.  This  period  demands  a  special  care  in  the 
educator. 

§  73.  The  general  preventive  guards  must  be  found  in  a 
rational  system  of  food  and  exercise.  By  care  in  these  direc- 
tions, the  development  of  the  bones,  and  with  them  of  the 
brain  and  spinal  cord  at  this  period,  may  be  led  to  a  proper 
strength,  and  that  the  easily-moulded  material  may  not  be 
perverted  from  its  normal  functions  in  the  development  of 
the  body  to  a  premature  manifestation  of  the  sexual  instinct. 

§  74.  Special  forethought  is  necessary  lest  the  brain  be  too 
early  over-strained,  and  lest,  in  consequence  of  such  preco- 
cious and  excessive  action,  the  foundation  for  a  morbid  exci- 
tation of  the  whole  nervous  system  be  laid,  which  may  easily 


36        Intellectual  Education — Psyc?iological  Faculties. 

lead  to  effeminate  and  voluptuous  reveries,  and  to  brooding 
over  obscene  representations.  The  excessive  reading  of  nov- 
els, whose  exciting  pages  delight  in  painting  the  love  of  the 
sexes  for  each  other  and  its  sensual  phases,  may  lead  to  this,. 
and  then,  the  mischief  is  done. 

SECOND  DIVISION. 

INTELLECTUAL  EDUCATION. 

§  80.  Mens  sana  in  corpore  sano  is  correct  as  a  pedagogical 
maxim,  but  false  in  the  judgment  of  individual  cases ;  because 
it  is  possible,  on  the  one  hand,  to  have  a  healthy  mind  in  an 
unhealthy  body,  and,  on  the  other  hand,  an  unhealthy  mind 
in  a  healthy  body.  To  strive  after  the  harmony  of  soul  and 
body  is  the  material  .condition  of  all  proper  activity.  The 
development  of  intelligence  presupposes  physical  health. 
Here  we  are  to  speak  of  the  science  of  the  art  of  Teaching. 
This  had  its  condition  on  the  side  of  nature,  as  was  before 
seen,  in  physical  Education,  but  in  the  sphere  of  mind  it  is- 
related  to  Psychology  and  Logic.  It  unites,  in  Teaching,  con- 
siderations on  Psychology  as  well  as  a  Logical  method. 

FIRST     CHAPTER. 

The  Psychological  Presupposition. 

§  81.  If  we  would  have  a  sound  condition  of  Philosophy,  it 
must,  in  intellectual  Education,  refer  to  the  conception  of 
mind  which  has  been  unfolded  in  Psychology ;  and  it  must 
appear  as  a  defect  in  scientific  method  if  Psychology,  or  at 
least  the  conception  of  the  theoretical  mind,  is  treated  again 
as  within  Pedagogics.  We  must  take  something  for  granted. 
Psychology,  then,  will  be  consulted  no  further  than  is  requi- 
site to  place  on  a  sure  basis  the  pedagogical  function  which 
relates  to  it. 

§  82.  The  conception  of  attention  is  the  most  important  to 
Pedagogics  of  all  those  derived  ffom  Psychology.  Mind  is 
essentially  self-activity.  Nothing  exists  for  it  which  it  does 
not  itself  posit  as  its  own.  We  hear  it  not  seldom  implied 
that  something  from  outside  conditions  must  make  an  im- 
pression on  the  mind,  but  this  is  an  error.  Mind  lets  noth- 
ing act  upon  it  unless  it  has  rendered  itself  receptive  to  it. 
Without  this  preparatory  self-excitation  the  object  does  not 


Psychological  Faculties.  37 

really  penetrate  it,  and  it  passes  by  the  object  unconsciously 
or  indifferently.  The  horizon  of  perception  changes  for  each 
person  with  his  peculiarities  and  culture.  Attention  is  the 
adjusting  of  the  observer  to  the  object  in.  order  to  seize  it  in 
its  unity  and  diversity.  Relatively,  the  observer  allows,  for 
.a  moment,  his  relation  to  all  other  surroundings  to  cease,  so 
that  he  may  establish  a  relation  with  this  one.  Without  this 
essentially  spontaneous  activity,  nothing  exists  for  the  mind. 
All  result  in  teaching  and  learning  depends  upon  the  clear- 
ness and  strength  with  which  distinctions  are  made,  and  the 
saying,  bene  qui  distinguit  bene  docit,  applies  as  well  to  the 
pupil. 

§  83.  Attention,  depending  as  it  does  on  the  self-determin- 
ation of  the  observer,  can  therefore  be  improved,  and  the  pu- 
pil made  attentive,  by  the  educator.  Education  must  accus- 
tom him  to  an  exact,  rapid,  and  many-sided  attention,  so  that 
at  the  first  contact  with  an  object  he  may  grasp  it  sufficiently 
and  truly,  and  that  it  shall  not  be  necessary  for  him  always 
to  be  adding  to  his  acquisitions  concerning  it.  The  twilight 
and  partialness  of  intelligence  which  forces  us  always  to  new 
corrections  because  a  pupil  at  the  very  commencement  did 
not  give  entire  attention,  must  not  be  tolerated. 

§  84.  We  learn  from  Psychology  that  mind  does  not  consist 
of  distinct  faculties,  but  that  what  we  choose  to  call  so  are  only 
different  activities  of  the  same  power.  Each  one  is  just  as 
'essential  as  the  other,  on  which  account  Education  must  grant 
to  each  faculty  its  claim  to  the  same  fostering  care.  If  we 
would  construe  correctly  the  axiom  a  potiori  Jit  denominatio 
to  mean  that  man  is  distinguished  from  animals  by  thought, 
and  that  mediated  will  is  not  the  same  as  thought,  we  must 
not  forget  that  feeling  and  representing  are  not  less  neces- 
sary to  a  truly  complete  human  being.  The  special  direction 
which  the  activity  of  apprehending  intelligence  takes  are 
(1)  Perception,  (2)  Conception,  (3)  Thinking.  Dialectically, 
they  pass  over  into  each  other ;  not  that  Perception  rises  into 
Conception,  and  Conception  into  Thinking,  but  that  Thinking 
.goes  back  into  Conception,  and  this  again  into  Perception. 
In  the  development  of  the  young,  the  Perceptive  faculty  is 
most  active  in  the  infant,  the  Conceptive  in  the  child,  and  the 


38  The  Intuitive  Epoch. 

Thinking  in  the  youth ;  and  thus  we  may  distinguish  uAi  in- 
tuitive, an  imaginative,  and  a  logical  epoch. 

— Great  errors  arise  from  the  misapprehension  of  these  dif- 
ferent phases  and  of  their  dialectic,  since  the  different  forms 
which  are  suitable  to  the  different  grades  of  youth  are  min- 
gled. The  infant  certainly  thinks  while  he  perceives,  but  this 
thinking  is  to  him  unconscious.  Or,  if  he  has  acquired  per- 
ceptions, he  makes  them  into  conceptions,  and  demonstrates 
his  freedom  in  playing  with  them.  This  play  must  not  be 
taken  as  mere  amusement ;  it  also  signifies  that  he  takes 
care  to  preserve  his  self-determination,  and  his  power  of 
idealizing,  in  opposition  to  the  pleasant  filling  of  his  con- 
sciousness with  material.  Herein  the  delight  of  the  child  for 
fairy  tales  finds  its  reason.  The  fairy  tale  constantly  destroys 
the  limits  of  common  actuality.  The  abstract  understanding 
cannot  endure  this  arbitrariness  and  want  of  fixed  conditions, 
and  thus  would  prefer  that  children  should  read,  instead,, 
home-made  stories  of  the  "Charitable  Ann,"  of  the  "Heedless 
Frederick,"  of  the  "Inquisitive  Wilhelmine,"  &c.  Above  all, 
it  praises  "Robinson  Crusoe,"  which  contains  much  hetero- 
geneous matter,  but  nothing  improbable.  When  the  youth 
and  maiden  of  necessity  pass  over  into  the  earnestness  of  real 
life,  the  drying  up  of  the  imagination  and  the  domination  of 
the  understanding  presses  in. 

I.   The  Intuitive  Epoch. 

§  85.  Perception,  as  the  beginning  of  intellectual  culture, 
is  the  free  grasping  of  a  content  immediately  present  to  the 
spirit.  Education  can  do  nothing  directly  toward  the  per- 
formance of  this  act ;  it  can  only  assist  in  making  it  easy : — 
(1)  it  can  isolate  the  subject  of  consideration ;  (2)  it  can  give 
facility  in  the  transition  to  another ;  (3)  it  can  promote  the 
many-sidedness  of  the  interest,  by  which  means  the  return 
to  a  perception  already  obtained  has  always  a  fresh  charm. 

§  86.  The  immediate  perception  of  many  things  is  impos- 
sible, and  yet  the  necessity  for  it  is  obvious.  We  must  then 
have  recourse  to  a  mediated  perception,  and  supply  the  lack 
of  actual  seeing  by  representations.  But  here  the  difficulty 
presents  itself,  that  there  are  many  objects  which  we  are  not 


The  Intuitive  Epoch.  6& 

able  to  represent  of  the  same  size  as  they  really  are,  and  we 
must  have  a  reduced  scale ;  and  there  follows  a  difficulty  in 
making  the  representation,  as  neither  too  large  nor  too  smalL 
An  explanation  is  then  also  necessary  as  a  judicious  supple- 
ment to  the  picture. 

§  87.  Pictures  are  extremely  valuable  aids  to  instruction 
when  they  are  correct  and  characteristic.  Correctness  must 
be  demanded  in  these  substitutes  for  natural  objects,  histo- 
rical persons  and  scenes.  Without  this  correctness,  the  pic- 
ture, if  not  an  impediment,  is,  to  say  the  least,  useless. 

— It  is  only  since  the  last  half  of  the  seventeenth  century > 
i.e.  since  the  disappearance  of  real  painting,  that  the  picture- 
book  has  appeared  as  an  educational  means ;  iirst  of  all, 
coming  from  miniature  painting.  Up  to  that  time,  public  life 
had  plenty  of  pictures  of  arms,  furniture,  houses,  and  church- 
es; and  men,  from  their  fondness  for  constantly  moving 
about,  were  more  weary  of  immediate  perception.  It  was 
only  afterwards  when,  in  the  excitement  of  the  thirty- years'" 
war,  the  arts  of  Sculpture  and  Painting  and  Christian  and 
Pagan  Mythology  became  extinct,  that  there  arose  a  greater 
necessity  for  pictured  representations.  The  OrMs  Rerum 
Sensualium  Pictus,  which  was  also  to  be  janua  linguarum 
reserata,  of  Amos  Comenius,  appeared  first  in  1658,  and  was. 
reprinted  in  1805.  Many  valuable  illustrated  books  followed. 
Since  that  time  innumerable  illustrated  Bibles  and  histories- 
have  appeared,  but  many  of  them  look  only  to  the  pecu- 
niary profit  of  the  author  or  the  publisher.  It  is  revolting  to- 
see  the  daubs  that  are  given  to  children.  They  are  highly 
colored,  but  as  to  correctness,  to  say  nothing  of  character,, 
they  are  good  for  nothing.  With  a  little  conscientiousness 
and  scientific  knowledge  very  different  results  could  be  ob- 
tained with  the  same  outlay  of  money  and  of  strength.  The- 
uniformity  which  exists  in  the  stock  of  books  which  Ger- 
man book-selling  has  set  in  circulation  is  really  disgraceful. 
Everywhere  we  find  the  same  types,  even  in  ethnographical 
pictures.  In  natural  history,  the  illustrations  were  often 
drawn  from  the  imagination  or .  copied  from  miserable  mod- 
els. This  has  changed  very  much  for  the  better.  The  same 
is  true  of  architectural  drawings  and  landscapes^for  which 
we  have  now  better  copies. — 


40  The  Intuitive  Epoch. 

§  88.  Children  have  naturally  a  desire  to  collect  things,  and 
this  may  be  so  guided  that  they  shall  collect  and  arrange 
plants,  butterflies,  beetles,  shells,  skeletons,  &c.,  and  thus 
.gain  exactness  and  reality  in  their  perception.  Especially 
should  they  practise  drawing,  which  leads  them  to  form  ex- 
act images  of  objects.  But  drawing,  as  children  practise  it, 
does  not  have  the  educational  significance  of  cultivating  in 
them  an  appreciation  of  art,  but  rather  that  of  educating  the 
eye,  as  this  must  be  exercised  in  estimating  distances,  sizes, 
and  colors.  It  is,  moreover,  a  great  gain  in  many  ways,  if, 
through  a  suitable  course  of  lessons  in  drawing,  the  child  is 
advanced  to  a  knowledge  of  the  elementary  forms  of  nature. 

— That  pictures  should  affect  children  as  works  of  art  is 
not  to  be  desired.  They  confine  themselves  at  first  to  distin- 
guishing the  outlines  and  colors,  and  do  not  yet  appreciate 
the  execution.  If  the  children  have  access  to  real  works  of 
art,  we  may  safely  trust  in  their  power,  and  quietly  await 
their  moral  or  aesthetic  effect. — 

§  89.  In  order  that  looking  at  pictures  shall  not  degenerate 
into  mere  diversion,  explanations  should  accompany  them. 
Only  when  the  thought  embodied  in  the  illustration  is  point- 
ed out,  can  they  be  useful  as  a  means  of  instruction.  Simply 
looking  at  them  is  of  as  little  value  towards  this  end  as  is 
water  for  baptism  without  the  Holy  Spirit.  Our  age  inclines 
at  present  to  the  superstition  that  man  is  able,  by  means 
of  simple  intuition,  to  attain  a  knowledge  of  the  essence  of 
things,  and  thereby  dispense  with  the  trouble  of  thinking. 
Illustrations  are  the  order  of  the  day,  and,  in  the  place  of 
enjoyable  descriptions,  we  find  miserable  pictures.  It  is  in 
vain  to  try  to  get  behind  things,  or  to  comprehend  them,  ex- 
cept by  thinking. 

§  90.  The  ear  as  well  as  the  eye  must  be  cultivated.  Music 
must  be  considered  the  first  educational  means  to  this  end, 
but  it  should  be  music  inspired  by  ethical  purity.  Hearing 
is  the  most  internal  of  all  the  senses,  and  should  on  this 
account  be  treated  with  the  greatest  delicacy.  Especially 
should  the  child  be  taught  that  he  is  not  to  look  upon  speech 
as  merely  a  vehicle  for  communication  and  for  gaining  in- 
formation j  it  should  also  give  pleasure,  and  therefore  he 
should  be  taught  to  speak  distinctly  and  with  a  good  style, 


The  Imaginative  Epoch.  41 

and  this  he  can  do  only  when  he  carefully  considers  what  he 
is  going  to  say.  » 

— Among  the  Greeks,  extraordinary  care  was  given  to  mu- 
sical cultivation,  especially  in  its  ethical  relation.  Sufficient 
proof  of  this  is  found  in  the  admirable  detailed  statements 
on  this  point  in  the  "Republic"  of  Plato  and  in  the  last  book 
of  the  "Politics"  of  Aristotle.  Among  modern  nations,  also, 
music  holds  a  high  place,  and  makes  its  appearance  as  a  con- 
stant element  of  education.  Piano-playing  has  become  gen- 
eral, and  singing  is  also  taught.  But  the  ethical  significance 
of  music  is  too  little  considered.  Instruction  in  music  often 
aims  only  to  train  pupils  for  display  in  society,  and  the  ten- 
dency of  the  melodies  which  are  played  is  restricted  more 
and  more  to  orchestral  pieces  of  an  exciting  or  bacchanalian 
character.  The  railroad-gallop-style  only  makes  the  nerves 
of  youth  vibrate  with  stimulating  excitement.  Oral  speech, 
the  highest  form  of  the  personal  manifestation  of  mind,  was 
also  treated  with  great  reverence  by  the  ancients.  Among 
us,  communication  is  so  generally  carried  on  by  writing  and 
reading,  that  the  art  of  speaking  distinctly,  correctly,  and 
agreeably,  has  become  very  much  neglected.  Practice  in 
declamation  accomplishes,  as  a  general  thing,  very  little  in 
this  direction.  But  we  may  expect  that  the  increase  of  pub- 
lic speaking  occasioned  by  our  political  and  religious  assem- 
blies may  have  a  favorable  influence  in  this  particular. — 

II.  The  Imaginative  Epoch. 

§  91.  The  activity  of  Perception  results  in  the  formation  of 
an  internal  picture  or  image  of  its  ideas  which  intelligence 
can  call  up  at  any  time  without  the  sensuous,  immediate  pres- 
ence of  its  object,  and  thus,  through  abstraction  and  general- 
ization, arises  the  conception.  The  mental  image  may  (1)  be 
compared  with  the  perception  from  which  it  sprang,  or  (2)  it 
may  be  arbitrarily  altered  and  combined  with  other  images, 
or  (3)  it  may  be  held  fast  in  the  form  of  abstract  signs  or  sym- 
bols which  intelligence  invents  for  it.  Thus  originate  the 
functions  (1)  of  the  verification  of  conceptions,  (2)  of  the  crea- 
tive imagination,  and  (3)  of  memory ;  but  for  their  full  de- 
velopment we  must  refer  to  Psychology. 

§  92.  (1)  The  mental  image  which  we  form  of  an  object  may 


42  The  Imaginative  Epoch. 

be  correct ;  again,  it  may  be  partly  or  wholly  defective,  if  we 
have  neglected  some  of  the  predicates  of  the  perception  which 
presented  themselves,  or  in  so  far  as  we  have  added  to  it  other 
predicates  which  only  seemingly  belonged  to  it,  and  which 
were  attached  to  it  only  by  its  accidental  empirical  connection 
with  other  existences.  Education  must,  therefore,  foster  the 
habit  of  comparing  our  conceptions  with  the  perceptions  from 
which  they  arose ;  and  these  perceptions,  since  they  are  lia- 
ble to  change  by  reason  of  their  empirical  connection  with 
other  objects,  must  be  frequently  compared  with  our  con- 
ceptions previously  formed  by  abstractions  from  them. 

§  93.  (2)  We  are  thus  limited  in  our  conceptions  by  our 
perceptions,  but  we  exercise  a  free  control  over  our  concep- 
tions. We  can  create  out  of  them,  as  simple  elements,  the 
manifold  mental  shapes  which  we  do  not  treat  as  given  to  us, 
but  as  essentially  our  own  work.  In  Pedagogics,  we  must  not 
only  look  upon  this  freedom  as  if  it  were  only  to  afford  gra- 
tification, but  as  the  reaction  of  the  absolute  ideal  native 
mind  against  the  dependence  in  which  the  empirical  recep- 
tion of  impressions  from  without,  and  their  reproduction  in 
conceptions,  place  it.  In  this  process,  it  does  not  only  fash- 
ion in  itself  the  phenomenal  world,  but  it  rather  fashions  out 
of  itself  a  world  which  is  all  its  own. 

§  94.  The  study  of  Art  comes  here  to  the  aid  of  Pedagogics, 
especially  with  Poetry,  the  highest  and  at  the  same  time  the 
most  easily  communicated.  The  imagination  of  the  pupil 
can  be  led  by  means  of  the  classical  works  of  creative  ima 
gination  to  the  formation  of  a  good  taste  both  as  regards 
ethical  value  and  beauty  of  form.  The  proper  classical  works 
for  youth  are  those  which  nations  have  produced  in  the  earli- 
est stages  of  their  culture.  These  works  bring  children  face 
to  face  with  the  picture  which  mind  has  sketched  for  itself  in 
one  of  the  necessary  stages  of  its  development.  This  is  the 
real  reason  why  our  children  never  weary  of  reading  Homer 
and  the  stories  of  the  Old  Testament.  Polytheism  and  the 
heroism  which  belongs  to  it  are  just  as  substantial  an  element 
of  childish  conception  as  monotheism  with  its  prophets  and 
patriarchs.  We  stand  beyond  both,  because  we  are  medi- 
ated by  both,  and  embrace  both  in  our  stand-point. 

— The  purest  stories  of  literature  designed  for  the  amuse- 


The  Imaginative  Epoch.  43 

mejit  of  children  from  their  seventh  to  their  fourteenth  year, 
consist  always  of  those  which  were  honored  by  nations  and 
the  world  at  large.  One  has  only  to  notice  in  how  many 
thousand  forms  the  stories  of  Ulysses  are  reproduced  by 
the  writers  of  children's  tales.  Becker's  "  Tales  of  Ancient 
Times,"  Gustav  Schwab's  most  admirable  "Sagas  of  Antiqui- 
ty," Karl  Grimm's  "  Tales  of  Olden  Times,"  &c.,  what  were 
they  without  the  well-talking,  wily  favorite  of  Pallas,  and 
the  divine  swine-herd  ?  And  just  as  indestructible  are  the 
stories  of  the  Old  Testament  up  to  the  separation  of  Judah 
and  Israel.  These  patriarchs  with  their  wives  and  children, 
these  judges  and  prophets,  these  kings  and  priests,  are  by  no 
means  ideals  of  virtue  in  the  notion  of  our  modern  lifeless 
morality,  which  would  smooth  out  of  its  pattern- stories  for 
the  "dear  children"  everything  that  is  hard  and  uncouth. 
For  the  very  reason  that  the  shadow-side  is  not  wanting  here, 
and  that  we  find  envy,  vanity,  evil  desire,  ingratitude,  crafti- 
ness, and  deceit,  among  these  fathers  of  the  race  and  leaders 
of  "God's  chosen  people,"  have  these  stories  so  great  an 
educational  value.  Adam,  Cain,  Abraham,  Joseph,  Samson, 
and  David,  have  justly  become  as  truly  world-historical  types 
as  Achilles  and  Patroclus,  Agamemnon  and  Iphigenia,  Hec- 
tor and  Andromache,  Ulysses  and  Penelope.— 

§  95.  There  may  be  produced  also,  out  of  the  simplest  and 
most  primitive  phases  of  different  epochs  of  culture  of  one 
and  the  same  people,  stories  which  answer  to  the  imagination 
of  children,  and  represent  to  them  the  characteristic  features 
of  the  past  of  their  people. 

—The  Germans  possess  such  a  collection  of  their  stories  in 
their  popular  books  of  the  "Horny  Sigfried,"  of  the  "Heymon 
Children,"  of  "Beautiful  Magelone,"  "Fortunatus,"  "The 
Wandering  Jew,"  "  Faust,"  "  The  Adventurous  Simplicissi- 
mus,"  "The  Schildburger,"  "The  Island  of  Felsenburg," 
"Lienhard  and  Gertrude,"  &c.  Also,  the  art  works  of  the 
great  masters  which  possess  national  significance  must  be 
spoken  of  here,  as  the  Don  Quixote  of  Cervantes. — 

§  96.  The  most  general  form  in  which  the  childish  imagin- 
ation finds  exercise  is  that  of  fairy-tales ;  but  Education  must 
take  care  that  it  has  these  in  their  proper  shape  as  national 
productions,  and  that  they  are  not  of  the  morbid  kind 


44  The  Imaginative  Epoch. 

which  poetry  so  often  gives  us  in  this  species  of  literature, 
and  which  not  seldom  degenerate  to  sentimental  caricatures 
and  silliness. 

— The  East  Indian  stories  are  most  excellent  because  they 
have  their  origin  with  a  childlike  people  who  live  wholly  in 
the  imagination.  By  means  of  the  Arabian  nitration,  which 
took  place  in  Cairo  in  the  flourishing  period  of  the  Egyptian 
caliphs,  all  that  was  too  characteristically  Indian  was  ex- 
cluded, and  they  were  made  in  the  "  Tales  of  Scheherezade," 
a  book  for  all  peoples,  with  whose  far-reaching  power  in 
child-literature,  the  local  stories  of  a  race,  as  e.g.  Grimm's 
admirable  ones  of  German  tradition,  cannot  compare.  Fairy- 
tales made  to  order,  as  we  often  see  them,  with  a  mediaeval 
Catholic  tendency,  or  very  moral  and  dry,  are  a  bane  to  the 
youthful  imagination  in  their  stale  sweetness.  We  must 
here  add,  however,  that  lately  we  have  had  some  better  suc- 
cess in  our  attempts  since  we  have  learned  to  distinguish 
between  the  naive  natural  poetry,  which  is  without  reflec- 
tion, and  the  poetry  of  art,  which  is  conditioned  by  criti- 
cism and  an  ideal.  This  distinction  has  produced  good  fruits 
even  in  the  picture-books  of  children.  The  pretensions 
of  the  gentlemen  who  printed  illustrated  books  containing 
nothing  more  solid  than  the  alphabet  and  the  multiplication 
table  have  become  less  prominent  since  such  men  as  Speck- 
ter,  Frohlich,  Gutsmuths,  Hofman  (the  writer  of  "  Slovenly 
Peter"),  and  others,  have  shown  that  seemingly  trivial  things 
can  be  handled  with  intellectual  power,  if  one  is  blessed 
with  it,  and  that  nothing  is  more  opposed  to  the  child's 
imagination  than  the  childishness  with  which  so  many  writers 
for  children  have  fallen  when  they  attempted  to  descend  with 
dignity  from  their  presumably  lofty  stand-point.  Men  are 
beginning  to  understand  that  Christ  promised  the  kingdom 
of  heaven  to  little  children  on  other  grounds  than  because 
they  had  as  it  were  the  privilege  of  being  thoughtless  and 
foolish. — 

§  97.  For  youth  and  maidens,  especially  as  they  approach 
manhood  and  womanhood,  the  cultivation  of  the  imagina- 
tion must  allow  the  earnestness  of  actuality  to  manifest 
itself  in  its  undisguised  energy.  This  earnestness,  no  longer 
through  the  symbolism  of  play  but  in  its  objective  reality, 


The  Imaginative  Epoch.  45 

must  now  thoroughly  penetrate  the  conceptions  of  the  youth 
so  that  it  shall  prepare  him  to  seize  hold  of  the  machinery  of 
active  life.  Instead  of  the  all-embracing  Epos  they  should 
now  read  Tragedy,  whose  purifying  process,  through  the 
alternation  of  fear  and  pity,  unfolds  to  the  youth  the  secret 
of  all  human  destiny,  sin  and  its  expiation.  The  works  best 
adapted  to  lead  to  history  on  this  side  are  those  of  biogra- 
phy— of  ancient  times,  Plutarch ;  of  modern  times,  the  auto- 
biographies of  Augustine,  Cellini,  Rousseau,  Goethe,  Varnha- 
gen,  Jung  Stilling,  Moritz  Arndt,  &c.  These  autobiographies 
contain  a  view  of  the  growth  of  individuality  through  its 
inter-action  with  the  influences  of  its  time,  and,  together  with 
the  letters  and  memoirs  of  great  or  at  least  note-worthy  men, 
tend  to  produce  a  healthy  excitement  in  the  youth,  who  must 
learn  to  fight  his  own  battles  through  a  knowledge  of  the 
battles  of  others.  To  introduce  the  youth  to  a  knowledge  of 
Nature  and  Ethnography  no  means  are  better  than  those  of 
books  of  travel  which  give  the  charm  of  first  contact,  the  joy 
of  discovery,  instead  of  the  general  consciousness  of  the  con- 
quests of  mind. 

— If  educative  literature  on  the  one  hand  broadens  the  field 
of  knowledge,  on  the  other  it  may  also  promote  its  elabora- 
tion into  ideal  forms.  This  happens,  in  a  strict  sense,  through 
philosophical  literature.  But  only  two  different  species  of 
this  are  to  be  recommended  to  youth :  (1)  well-written  trea- 
tises which  endeavor  to  solve  a  single  problem  with  spirit 
and  thoroughness ;  or,  (2)  when  the  intelligence  has  grown 
strong  enough  for  it,  the  classical  works  of  a  real  philoso- 
pher. German  literature  is  fortunately  very  rich  in  treatises 
of  this  kind  in  the  works  of  Lessing,  Herder,  Kant,  Fichte, 
Schleiermacher,  Humboldt,  and  Schiller.  But  nothing  does 
more  harm  to  youth  than  the  study  of  works  of  mediocrity, 
or  those  of  a  still  lower  rank.  They  stupefy  and  narrow  the 
mind  by  their  empty,  hollow,  and  constrained  style.  It  is 
generally  supposed  that  these  standard  works  are  too  diffi- 
cult, and  that  one  must  first  seize  them  in  this  trivial  and 
diluted  form  in  order  to  understand  them.  This  is  one  of  the 
most  prevalent  and  most  dangerous  errors,  for  these  Intro- 
ductions or  Explanations,  easily-comprehended  Treatises, 
Summary  Abstracts,  are,  because  of  their  want  of  originality 


46  The  Imaginative  Epoch. 

and  of  the  acuteness  which  belongs  to  it,  much  more  difficult 
to  understand  than  the  standard  work  itself  from  which  they 
drain  their  supplies.  Education  must  train  the  youth  to  the 
courage  which  will  attempt  standard  works,  and  it  must  not 
allow  any  such  miserable  preconceived  opinions  to  grow  up 
in  his  mind  as  that  his  understanding  is  totally  unable  to 
comprehend  works  like  Fichte's  "Science  of  Knowledge,"  the 
"Metaphysics"  of  Aristotle,  or  Hegel's  "Phenomenology." 
No  science  suffers  so  much  as  Philosophy  from  this  false 
popular  opinion,  which  understands  neither  itself  nor  its  au- 
thority. The  youth  must  learn  how  to  learn  to  understand, 
and,  in  order  to  do  this,  he  must  know  that  one  cannot  imme- 
diately understand  everything  in  its  linest  subdivisions,  and 
that  on  this  account  he  must  have  patience,  and  must  resolve 
to  read  over  and  over  again,  and  to  think  over  what  he  has 
read. — 

§  98.  (3)  Imagination  returns  again  within  itself  to  per- 
ception in  that  it  replaces,  for  conceptions,  perceptions  them- 
selves, which  are  to  remind  it  of  the  previous  conception. 
These  perceptions  may  resemble  in  some  way  the  perception 
which  lies  at  the  basis  of  the  conception,  and  be  thus  more  or 
less  symbolical :  or  they  may  be  merely  arbitrary  creations  of 
the  creative  imagination,  and  are  in  this  case  pure  signs.  In 
common  speech  and  writing,  we  call  the  free  retaining  of 
these  perceptions  created  by  imagination,  and  the  recalling 
of  the  conceptions  denoted  by  them,  Memory.  It  is  by  no 
means  a  particular  faculty  of  the  mind,  which  is  again  sub- 
divided into  memory  of  persons,  names,  numbers,  &c.  As  to 
its  form,  memory  is  the  stage  of  the  dissolution  of  concep- 
tion ;  but  as  to  its  content,  it  arises  from  the  interest  which 
we  take  in  a  subject-matter.  From  this  interest  results, 
moreover,  careful  attention,  and  from  this  latter,  facility  in 
the  reproductive  imagination.  If  these  acts  have  preceded, 
the  fixing  of  a  name,  or  of  a  number,  in  which  the  content  in- 
teresting us  is  as  it  were  summed  up,  is  not  difficult.  When 
interest  and  attention  animate  us,  it  seems  as  if  we  did  not 
need  to  be  at  all  troubled  about  remembering  anything.  All 
the  so-called  mnemonic  helps  only  serve  to  make  more  diffi- 
cult the  act  of  memory.  This  act  is  in  itself  a  double  func- 
tion, consisting  of,  first,  the  fixing  of  the  sign,  and  second, 


The  Logical  Epoch.  47 

the  fixing  of  the  conception  subsumed  under  it.  S^nce  the 
mnemonic  technique  adds  to  these  one  more  conception, 
through  whose  means  the  things  with  which  we  have  to  deal 
are  to  be  fixed  in  order  to  be  able  freely  to  express  them  in 
us,  it  trebles  the  functions  of  remembering,  and  forgets  that 
the  mediation  of  these  and  their  relation — wholly  arbitrary 
and  highly  artificial — must  also  be  remembered.  The  true 
help  of  memory  consists  in  not  helping  it  at  all,  but  in  sim- 
ply taking  up  the  object  into  the  ideal  regions  of  the  mind 
by  the  force  of  the  infinite  self-determination  which  mind 
possesses. 

— Lists  of  names,  as  e.g.  of  the  Roman  emperors,  of  the 
popes,  of  the  caliphs,  of  rivers,  mountains,  authors,  cities, 
&c. ;  also  numbers,  as  e.g.  the  multiplication  table,  the  melt- 
ing points  of  minerals,  the  dates  of  battles,  of  births  and 
deaths,  &c.,  must  be  learned  without  aid.  All  indirect  means 
only  serve  to  do  harm  here,  and  are  required  as  self-discov- 
ered mediation  only  in  case  that  interest  or  attention  has 
become  weakened. — 

§  99.  The  means  to  be  used,  which  result  from  the  nature 
of  memory  itself,  are  on  the  one  hand  the  pronouncing  and 
writing  of  the  names  and  numbers,  and  on  the  other,  repeti- 
tion ;  by  these  we  gain  distinctness  and  certainty. 

— All  artificial  contrivances  for  quickening  the  memory 
vanish  in  comparison  with  the  art  of  writing,  in  so  far  as 
this  is  not  looked  at  as  a  means  of  relieving  the  memory. 
That  a  name  or  a  number  should  be  this  or  that,  is  a  mere 
chance  for  the  intelligence,  an  entirely  meaningless  accident 
to  which  we  have  unconditionally  to  submit  ourselves  as  un- 
alterable. The  intelligence  must  be  accustomed  to  put  upon 
itself  this  constraint.  In  science  proper,  especially  in  Phi- 
losophy, our  reason  helps  to  produce  one  thought  from 
others  by  means  of  the  context,  and  we  can  discover  names 
for  the  ideas  from  them. — 

III.    The  Logical  Epoch. 

» .  §  100.  In  Conception  there  is  attained  a  universality  of 
intellectual  action  in  so  far  as  the  empirical  details  are 
referred  to  a  Schema,  as  Kant  called  it.  But  the  necessity 
of  the  connection  is  wanting  to  it.  To  produce  this  is  the 


48  The  Logical  Epoch. 

task  of  the  thinking  activity,  which  frees  itself  from  all  rep- 
resentations, and  with  its  clearly  defined  determinations 
transcends  conceptions.  The  Thinking  activity  frees  itself 
from  all  sensuous  representations  by  means  of  the  processes 
of  Conception  and  Perception.  Comprehension,  Judgment, 
and  Syllogism,  develop  for  themselves  into  forms  which,  as 
such,  have  no  power  of  being  perceived  by  the  senses.  But 
it  does  not  follow  from  this  that  he  who  thinks  cannot  return 
out  of  the  thinking  activity  and  carry  it  with  him  into  the 
sphere  of  Conception  and  Perception.  The  true  thinking  ac- 
tivity deprives  itself  of  no  content.  The  abstraction  affecting 
a  logical  purism  which  looks  down  upon  Conception  and 
Perception  as  forms  of  intelligence  quite  inferior  to  itself,  is 
a  pseudo-thinking,  a  morbid  and  scholastic  error.  'Education 
will  be  the  better  on  its  guard  against  this  the  more  it  has 
led  the  pupil  by  the  legitimate  road  of  Perception  and  Con- 
ception to  Thinking.  Memorizing  especially  is  an  excellent 
preparatory  school  for  the  Thinking  activity,  because  it 
gives  practice  to  the  intelligence  in  exercising  itself  in  ab- 
stract ideas. 

§  101.  The  fostering  of  the  Sense  of  Truth  from  the  earli- 
est years  up,  is  the  surest  way  of  leading  the  pupil  to  gain 
the  power  of  thinking.  The  unprejudiced,  disinterested  yield- 
ing to  Truth,  as  well  as  the  effort  to  shun  all  deception  and 
false  seeming,  are  of  the  greatest  value  in  strengthening  the 
power  of  reflection,  as  this  considers  nothing  of  value  but  the 
actually  existing  objective  circumstances. 

— The  indulging  an  illusion  as  a  pleasing  recreation  of  the 
intelligence  should  be  allowed,  while  lying  must  not  be 
tolerated.  Children  have  a  natural  inclination  for  mystifica- 
tions, for  masquerades,  for  raillery,  and  for  theatrical  per- 
formances, &c.  This  inclination  to  illusion  is  perfectly  nor- 
mal with  them,  and  should  be  permitted.  The  graceful  king- 
dom of  Art  is  developed  from  it,  as  also  the  poetry  of  conver- 
sation in  jest  and  wit.  Although  this  sometimes  becomes 
stereotyped  into  very  prosaic  conventional  forms  of  speech, 
it  is  more  tolerable  than  the  awkward  honesty  which  takes 
everything  in  its  simple  literal  sense.  And  it  is  easy  to 
discover  whether  children  in  such  play,  in  the  activity  of  free 
joyousness,  incline  to  the  side  of  mischief  by  their  showing 


The  Logical  Presupposition  or  Method.  49 

a  desire  of  satisfying  their  selfish'  interest.  Then  they  must 
be  checked,  for  in  that  case  .the  cheerfulness  of  harmless 
joking  gives  way  to 'premeditation  and  dissimulation. — 

§  102.  An  acquaintance  with  logical  forms  is  to  be  recom- 
mended as  a  special  educational  help  in  the  culture  of  intel- 
ligence. The  study  of  Mathematics  does  not  suffice,  because 
it  presupposes  Logic.  Mathematics  is  related  to  Logic  in  the 
same  way  as  Grammar,  the  Physical  Sciences,  &c.  The  logi- 
cal forms  must  be  known  explicitly  in  their  pure  independent 
forms,  and  not  merely  in  their  implicit  state  as  immanent  in 
objective  forms. 

SECOND      CHAPTER. 

The  Logical  Presupposition  or  Method. 

§  103.  The  logical  presupposition  of  instruction  is  the  order 
in  which  the  subject-matter  develops  for  the  consciousness. 
The  subject,  the  consciousness  of  the  pupil,  and  the  activity 
of  the  instructor,  interpenetrate  each  other  in  instruction, 
and  constitute  in  actuality  one  whole. 

§  104.  (1)  First  of  all,  the  subject  which  is  to  be  learned 
has  a  specific  determinateness  which  demands  in  its  represen- 
tation a  certain  fixed  order.  However  arbitrary  we  may  de- 
sire to  be,  the  subject  has  a  certain  self-determination  of  its 
own  which  no  mistreatment  can  wholly  crush  out,  and  this 
inherent  immortal  reason  is  the  general  foundation  of  in- 
struction. <. 

— To  illustrate;  however  one  may  desire  to  manipulate  a 
language  in  teaching  it,  he  cannot  change  the  words  in  it,  or 
the  inflections  of  the  declensions  and  conjugations.  And  the 
same  restriction  is  laid  upon  our  inclinations  in  the  different 
divisions  of  Natural  History,  in  the  theorems  of  Arithmetic, 
Geometry,  &c.  The  theorem  of  Pascal  remains  still  the  theo- 
rem of  Pascal,  and  will  always  remain  so. — 

§  105.  (2)  But  the  subject  must  be  adapted  to  the  conscious- 
ness of  the  pupil,  and  here  the  order  of  procedure  and  the 
exposition  depend  upon  the  stage  which  he  has  reached  in- 
tellectually, for  the  special  manner  of  the  instruction  must 
be  conditioned  by  this.  If  he  is  in  the  stage  of  perception, 
we  must  use  the  illustrative  method;  if  in  the  stage  of  con- 
ception, that  of  combination  ;  and  if  in  the  stage  of  reflection 

5 


50  The  Logical  Presupposition  or  Method. 

that  of  demonstration.  The  first  exhibits  the  object  directly, 
or  some  representation  of  it ;  the  second  considers  it  accord- 
ing to  the  different  possibilities  which  exist  in  it,  and  turns 
it  around  on  all  sides  ;  the  third  questions  the  necessity  of  the 
connection  in  which  it  stands  either  with  itself  or  with  others. 
This  is  the  natural  order  from  the  stand-point  of  the  scientific 
intelligence:  first,  the  object  is  presented  to  the  perception; 
then  combination  presents  its  different  phases ;  and,  finally, 
the  thinking  activity  circumscribes  the  restlessly  moving  re- 
flection by  the  idea  of  necessity.  Experiment  in  the  method 
of  combination  is  an  excellent  means  for  a  discovery  of  rela- 
tions, for  a  sharpening  of  the  attention,  for  the  arousing  of  a 
many-sided  interest ;  but  it  is  no  true  dialectic,  though  it  be 
often  denoted  by  that  name. 

— Illustration  is  especially  necessary  in  the  natural  scien- 
ces and  also  in  aesthetics,  because  in  both  of  these  depart 
ments  the  sensuous  is  an  essential  element  of  the  matter  dealt 
with.  In  this  respect  we  have  made  great  progress  in  charts 
and  maps.  Sydow's  hand  and  wall  maps  and  Berghaus's  phy- 
sical atlas  are  most  excellent  means  of  illustrative  instruc- 
tion ;  also  Burmeister's  zoological  atlas. — 

§  106.  The  demonstrative  method,  in  order  to  bring  about 
its  proof  of  necessity,  has  a  choice  of  many  different  ways. 
But  we  must  not  imagine,  either  that  there  are  an  unlimited 
number,  and  that  it  is  only  a  chance  which  one  we  shall  take ; 
or  that  they  have  no  connection  among  themselves,  and  run, 
as  it  were,  side  by  side.  It  is  not,  however,  the  business  of 
Pedagogics  to  develop  different  methods  of  proof;  this  be- 
longs to  Logic.  We  have  only  to  remember  that,  logically 
taken,  proof  must  be  analytic,  synthetic,  or  dialectic.  Analy- 
sis begins  with  the  single  one,  and  leads  out  of  it  by  induc- 
tion to  the  general  principle  from  which  its  existence  results. 
Synthesis,  on  the  contrary,  begins  with  a  general  which  is 
presupposed  as  true,  and  leads  from  this  through  deduction 
to  the  special  determinations  which  were  implicit  in  it.  The 
regressive  search  of  analysis  for  a  determining  principle  is 
Invention ;  the  forward  progress  of  synthesis  from  the  sim- 
ple elements  seeking  for  the  multiplicity  of  the  single  one  is 
Construction.  Each,  in  its  result,  passes  over  into  the  other; 
"but  their  truth  is  found  in  the  dialectic  method,  which  in  each 


Tlie  Logical  Presupposition  or  Method.  51 

phase  allows  unity  to  separate  into  diversity  and  diversity 
to  return  into  unity.  While  in  the  analytic  as  well  as  in  the 
synthetic  method  the  mediation  of  the  individual  with  the 
general,  or  of  the  general  with  the  individual,  lets  the  phase 
of  particularity  be  only  subjectively  connected  with  it  in 
the  dialectic  method,  we  have  the  going  over  of  the  general 
through  the  particular  to  the  individual,  or  to  the  self-deter- 
mination of  the  idea,  and  it  therefore  rightly  claims  the  title 
of  the  genetic  method.  We  can  also  say  that  while  the  inven- 
tive method  gives  us  the  idea  (notion)  and  the  constructive 
the  judgment,  the  genetic  gives  us  the  syllogism  which  leads 
the  determinations  of  reflection  back  again  into  substantial 
identity. 

§  107.  (3)  The  active  mediation  of  the  pupil  with  the  con- 
tent which  is  to  be  impressed  upon  his  consciousness  is  the 
work  of  the  teacher,  whose  personality  creates  a  method 
adapted  to  the  individual;  for  however  clearly  the  subject 
may  be  defined,  however  exactly  the  psychological  stage  of 
the  pupil  may  be  regulated,  the  teacher  cannot  dispense  with 
the  power  of  his  own  individuality  even  in  the  most  objective 
relations.  This  individuality  must  penetrate  the  whole  with 
its  own  exposition,  and  that  peculiarity  which  we  call  his 
manner,  and  which  cannot  be  determined  a  priori,  must  ap- 
pear. The  teacher  must  place  himself  on  the  stand-point  of 
the  pupil,  i.e.  must  adapt  himself;  he  must  see  that  the  ab- 
stract is  made  cleiir  to  him  in  the  concrete,  i.e.  must  illus- 
trate ;  he  must  fill  up  the  gaps  which  will  certainly  appear, 
and  which  may  mar  the  thorough  seizing  of  the  subject,  i.e. 
must  supply.  In  all  these  relations  the  pedagogical  tact  of 
the  teacher  may  prove  itself  truly  ingenious  in  varying  the 
method  according  to  the  changefulness  of  the  ever-varying 
needs,  in  contracting  or  expanding  the  extent,  in  stating,  or 
indicating  what  is  to  be  supplied.  The  true  teacher  is  free  from 
any  superstitious  belief  in  any  one  procedure  as  a  sure  spe- 
cific which  he  follows  always  in  a  monotonous  bondage.  This 
can  only  happen  when  he  is  capable  of  the  highest  method. 
•  The  teacher  has  arrived  at  the  highest  point  of  ability  in 
teaching  when  he  can  make  use  of  all  means,  from  the  loftiness 
of  solemn  seriousness,  through  smooth  statement,  to  the  play 
of  jest — yes,  even  to  the  incentive  of  irony,  and  to  humor. 


52  The  Subjects  of  Instruction. 

— Pedagogics  can  be  in  nothing  more  specious  than  in  its 
method,  and  it  is  here  that  charlatanism  can  most  rea- 
dily intrude  itself.  Every  little  change,  every  inadequate 
modification,  is  proclaimed  aloud  as  a  new  or  an  improved 
method ;  and  even  the  most  foolish  and  superficial  changes 
find  at  once  their  imitators,  who  themselves  conceal  their  in- 
solence behind  some  frivolous  differences,  and,  with  laugha- 
ble conceit,  hail  themselves  as  inventors. — 

THIRD   CHAPTER. 

Instruction. 

'§  108.  All  instruction  acts  upon  the  supposition  that  there 
is  an  inequality  between  present  knowledge  and  power  and 
that  knowledge  and  power  which  are  not  yet  attained.  To 
the  pupil  belong  the  first,  to  the  teacher  the  second.  Educa- 
tion is  the  act  which  gradually  cancels  the  original  inequal- 
ity of  teacher  and  pupil,  in  that  it  converts  what  was  at  first 
the  property  of  the  former  into  the  property  of  the  latter, 
and  this  by  means  of  his  own  activity. 

I.    The  Subjects  of  Instruction. 

§  109.  The  pupil  is  the  apprentice,  the  teacher  the  master, 
whether  in  the  practice  of  any  craft  or  art,  or  in  the  exposi- 
tion of  any  systematic  knowledge.  The  pupil  passes  from 
the  state  of  the  apprentice  to  that  of  the  master  through 
that  of  the  journeyman.  The  apprentice  has  to  appropriate 
to  himself  the  elements;  journey manship  oegins  as  he,  by 
means  of  their  possession,  becomes  independent;  the  master 
combines  with  his  technical  skill  the  freedom  of  production. 
His  authority  over  his  pupil  consists  only  in  his  knowledge 
and  power.  If  he  has  not  these,  no  external  support,  no  trick 
of  false  appearances  which  he  may  put  on,  will  serve  to  cre- 
ate it  for  him. 

§  110.  These  stages — (1)  apprenticeship,  (2)  journeyman- 
ship,  (3)  mastership— are  fixed  limitations  in  the  didactic 
process ;  they  are  relative  only  in  the  concrete.  The  stand- 
ard of  special  excellence  varies  with  the  different  grades  of 
culture,  and  must  be  varied  that  it  may  have  any  historical 
value.  The  master  is  complete  only  in  relation  to  the  jour- 
neyman and  apprentice ;  to  them  he  is  superior.  But  on  the 


The  Subjects  of  Instruction.  53 

other  Land,  in  relation  to  the  infinity  of  the  problems  of  his 
art  or  science,  he  is  by  no  means  complete;  to  himself  he 
must  always  appear  as  one  who  begins  ever  anew,  one  who 
is  ever  striving,  one  to  whom  a  new  problem  ever  rises  from 
every  achieved  result.  He  cannot  discharge  himself  from 
work,  he  must  never  desire  to  rest  on  his  laurels.  He  is  the 
truest  master  whose  finished  performances  only  force  him  on 
to  never-resting  progress. 

§  111.  The  real  possibility  of  culture  is  found  in  general, 
it  is  true,  in  every  human  being ;  nevertheless,  empirically, 
there  are  distinguished:  (1)  Incapacity,  as  the  want  of  all 
gifts  ;  (2)  Mediocrity ;  (3)  Talent  and  Genius.  It  is  the  part 
ofPsychology  to  give  an  account  of  all  these.  Mediocrity 
characterizes  the  great  mass  of  mechanical  intelligences, 
those  who  wait  for  external  impulse  as  to  what  direction 
their  endeavors  shall  take.  Not  without  truth,  perhaps,  may 
we  say,  that  hypothetic-ally  a  special  talent  is  given  to 
each  individual,  but  this  special  talent  in  many  men  never 
makes  its  appearance,  because  under  the  circumstances  in 
which  it  finds  itself  placed  it  fails  to  find  the  exciting  occa- 
sion which  shall  give  him  the  knowledge  of  its  existence. 
The  majority  of  mankind  are  contented  with  the  mechanical 
impulse  which  makes  them  into  something  and  impresses 
upon  them  certain  determinations.  —  Talent  shows  itself  by 
means  of  the  confidence  in  its  own  especial  productive  possi- 
bility, which  manifests  itself  as  an  inclination,  as  a  strong 
impulse,  to  occupy  itself  with  the  special  object  which  con- 
stitutes its  content.  Pedagogics  has  no  difficulty  in  dealing 
with  mechanical  natures,  because  their  passivity  is  only 
too  ready  to  follow  prescribed  patterns.  It  is  more  difficult 
to  manage  talent,  because  it  lies  between  mediocrity  and 
genius,  and  is  therefore  uncertain,  and  not  only  unequal  to 
itself,  but  also  is  tossed  now  too  low,  now  too  high,  is  by 
turns  despondent  and  over-excited.  The  general  maxim  for 
deajing  with  it  is  to  remove  no  difficulty  from  the  subject 
to  which  its  efforts  are  directed.  —  Genius  must  be  treated 
much  in  the  same  way  as  Talent.  The  difference  con- 
sists only  in  this,  that  Genius,  with  a  foreknowledge  of  its 
creative  power,  usually  manifests  its  confidence  with  less 
doubt  in  a  special  vocation,  and,  with  a  more  intense  thirst 


54  The  Subjects  of  Instruction. 

for  culture,  subjects  itself  more  willingly  to  the  demands  of 
instruction.  Genius  is  in  its  nature  the  purest  self-determin- 
ation, in  that  it  lives,  in  its  own  inner  existence,  the  necessity 
which  exists  in  the  thing.  But  it  can  assign  to  the  New,  which 
is  in  it  already  immediately  and  subjectively,  no  value  if  this 
has  not  united  itself  to  the  already  existing  culture  as  its 
objective  presupposition,  and  on  this  ground  it  thankfully 
receives  instruction. 

§  112.  But  Talent  and  Genius  offer  a  special  difficulty  to 
education  in  the  precocity  which  often  accompanies  them. 
But  by  precocity  we  do  not  mean  that  they  early  render 
themselves  perceptible,  since  the  early  manifestation  of  gifts 
by  talent  and  genius,  through  their  intense  confidence,  is 
to  be  looked  at  as  perfectly  legitimate.  But  precocity  is 
rather  the  hastening  forward  of  the  human  being  in  feeling 
and  moral  sense,  so  that  where  in  the  ordinary  course  of  na- 
ture we  should  have  a  child,  we  have  a  youth,  and  a  man  in 
the  place  of  a  youth.  We  may  find  precocity  among  those 
who  belong  to  the  class  of  mediocrity,  but  it  is  developed 
most  readily  among  those  possessed  of  talent  and  genius,  be- 
cause with  them  the  early  appearance  of  superior  gifts  may 
very  easily  bring  in  its  train  a  perversion  of  the  feelings  and 
the  moral  nature.  Education  must  deal  with  it  in  so  far  as 
it  is  inharmonious,  so  that  it  shall  be  stronger  than  the  de- 
mands made  on  it  from  without,  so  that  it  shall  not  minister 
to  vanity ;  and  must  take  care,  in  order  to  accomplish  this, 
that  social  naturalness  and  lack  of  affectation  be  preserved 
in  the  pupil. 

— Oar  age  has  to  combat  this  precocity  much  more  than 
others.  We  find  e.g.  authors  who,  at  the  age  of  thirty  years, 
in  which  they  publish  their  collected  works  or  write  their 
biography,  are  chilly  with  the  feelings  of  old  age.  Music  has 
been  the  sphere  in  which  the  earliest  development  of  talent 
has  shown  itself,  and  here  we  find  the  absurdity  that  the 
cupidity  of  parents  has  so  forced  precocious  talents  that  chil- 
dren of  four  or  five  years  of  age  have  been  made  to  appear 
in  public. — 

§  113.  Every  sphere  of  culture  contains  a  certain  quantity 
of  knowledge  and  ready  skill  which  may  be  looked  at,  as  it 
were,  as  the  created  result  of  the  culture.  It  is  to  be  wished 


The  Subjects  of  Instruction.  55 

that  every  one  who  turns  his  attention  to  a  certain  line  of 
culture  could  take  up  into  himself  the  gathered  learning  which 
controls  it.  In  so  far  as  he  does  this,  he  is  professional.  The 
consciousness  that  one  has  in  the  usual  way  gone  through  a 
school  of  art  or  science,  and  has,  with  the  general  inheritance 
of  acquisition,  been  handed  over  to  a  special  department,  cre- 
ates externally  a  beneficial  composure  which  is  very  favor- 
able to  internal  progress.  "We  must  distinguish  from  the 
professional  the  amateur  and  the  self-taught  man.  The  ama- 
teur busies  himself  with  an  art,  a  science,  or  a  trade,  without 
having  gone  through  any  strict  training  in  it.  As  a  rule,  he 
dispenses  with  elementary  thoroughness,  and  hastens  towards 
the  pleasure  which  the  joy  of  production  gives.  The  conscious 
amateur  confesses  this  himself,  makes  no  pretension  to  mas- 
tership, and  calls  himself — in  distinction  from  the  profes- 
sional, who  subjects  himself  to  rules — an  unlearned  person. 
But  sometimes  the  amateur,  on  the  contrary,  covers  over  his 
weakness,  cherishes  in  himself  the  self-conceit  that  he  is 
equal  to  the  heroes  of  his  art  or  science,  constitutes  himself 
the  first  admirer  of  his  own  performances,  seeks  for  their  want 
of  recognition  in  external  motives,  never  in  their  own  want 
of  excellence;  and,  if  he  has  money,  or  edits  a  paper,  is  in- 
toxicated with  being  the  patron  of  talent  which  produces 
such  works  as  he  would  willingly  produce  or  pretends  to  pro- 
duce. The  self-taught  man  has  often  true  talent,  or  even  ge- 
nius, to  whose  development  nevertheless  the  inherited  culture 
has  been  denied,  and  who  by  good  fortune  has  through  his 
own  strength  worked  his  way  into  a  field  of  effort.  The  self- 
taught  man  is  distinguished  from  the  amateur  by  the  thor- 
oughness and  the  industry  with  which  he  acts ;  he  is  not  only 
equally  unfortunate  with  him  in  the  absence  of  school-train- 
ing, but  is  much  less  endowed.  Even  if  the  self-taught  man 
has  for  years  studied  and  practised  much,  he  is  still  haunted 
by  a  feeling  of  uncertainty  as  to  whether  he  has  yet  reached 
the  stand-point  at  which  a  science,  an  art,  or  a  trade,  will  re- 
ceive him  publicly — of  so  very  great  consequence  is  it  that 
man  should  be  comprehended  and  recognized  by  man.  The 
self-taught  man  therefore  remains  embarrassed,  and  does  not 
free  himself  from  the  apprehension  that  he  may  expose  some 
weak  point  to  a  professional,  or  he  falls  into  the  other  ex- 


56  The  Act  of  Learning. 

treme — he  becomes  presumptuous,  steps  forth  as  a  reformer, 
and,  if  he  accomplishes  nothing,  or  earns  only  ridicule,  he 
sets  himself  down  as  an  unrecognized  martyr  by  an  unappre- 
ciative  and  unjust  world. 

— It  is  possible  that  the  amateur  may  transcend  the  stage 
of  superficiality  and  subject  himself  to  a  thorough  training; 
then  he  ceases  to  be  an  amateur.  It  is  also  possible  that  the 
self-taught  man  may  be  on  the  right  track,  and  may  accom- 
plish as  much  or  even  more  than  one  trained  in  the  usual 
way.  In  general,  however,  it  is  very  desirable  that  every  one 
should  go  through  the  regular  course  of  the  inherited  means 
of  education,  partly  that  he-may  be  thorough  in  the  elements, 
partly  to  free  him  from  the  anxiety  which  he  may  feel  lest 
he  in  his  solitary  efforts  spend  labor  on  some  superfluous 
work — superfluous  because  done  long  before,  and  of  which  he, 
through  the  accident  of  his  want  of  culture,  had  not  heard. 
We  must  all  learn  by  ourselves,  but  we  cannot  teach  our- 
selves. Only  Genius  can  do  this,  for  it  must  be  its  own  leader 
in  the  new  paths  which  it  opens.  Genius  alone  passes  beyond 
where  inherited  culture  ceases.  It  bears  this  in  itself  as  of 
the  past,  and  which  it  uses  as  material  for  its  new  creation; 
but  the  self-taught  man,  who  would  very  willingly  be  a  ge- 
nius, puts  himself  in  an  attitude  of  opposition  to  things 
already  accomplished,  or  sinks  into  oddity,  into  secret  arts 
and  sciences,  &c.— 

§  114.  These  ideas  of  the  general  steps  of  culture,  of  spe- 
cial gifts,  and  of  the  ways  of  culture  appropriate  to  each, 
which  we  have  above  distinguished,  have  a  manifold  connec- 
tion among  themselves  which  cannot  be  established  d  priori. 
We  can  however  remark  that  Apprenticeship,  the  Mechanical 
Intelligence,  and  the  Professional  life;  secondly,  Journey- 
manship,  Talent,  and  Amateurship ;  and,  finally,  Mastership, 
Genius,  and  Self-Education,  have  a  relationship  to  each  other. 

II.    The  Act  of  Learning. 

§  115.  In  the  process  of  education  the  interaction  between 
pupil  and  teacher  must  be  so  managed  that  the  exposition  by 
the  teacher  shall  excite  in  the  pupil  the  impulse  to  reproduc- 
tion. The  teacher  must  not  treat  his  exposition  as  if  it  were 
a  work  of  art  which  is  its  own  end  and  aim,  but  he  must  al- 


The  Act  of  Learning.  57 

ways  bear  in  mind  the  need  of  the  pupil.  The  artistic  expo- 
sition, as  such,  will,  by  its  completeness,  produce  admiration; 
but  the  didactic,  on  the  contrary,  will,  through  its  perfect 
adaptation,  call  out  the  imitative  instinct,  the  power  of  new 
creation. 

— From  this  consideration  we  may  justify  the  frequent 
statement  that  is  made,  that  teachers  who  have  really  an  ele- 
gant diction  do  not  really  accomplish  so  much  as  others  who 
resemble  in  their  statements  not  so  much  a  canal  flowing 
smoothly  between  straight  banks,  as  a  river  which  works  its 
fqaming  way  over  rocks  and  between  ever-winding  banks. 
The  pupil  perceives  that  the  first  is  considering  himself' 
when  he  speaks  so  finely,  perhaps  not  without  some  self- 
appreciation  ;  and  that  the  second,  in  the  repetitions  and  the 
sentences  which  are  never  finished,  is  concerning  himself 
solely  with  him.  The  pupil  feels  that  not  want  of  facility  or 
awkwardness,  but  the  earnest  eagerness  of  the  teacher,  is  the 
principal  thing,  and  that  this  latter  uses  rhetoric  only  as  a 
means.— 

§  116.  In  the  act  of  learning  there  appears  (1)  a  mechanical 
element,  (2)  a  dynamic  element,  and  (3)  one  in  which  the 
dynamic  again  mechanically  strengthens  itself. 

§  117.  As  to  the  mechanical  element,  the  right  time"  must 
be  chosen  for  each  lesson,  an  exact  arrangement  observed, 
and  the  suitable  apparatus,  which  is  necessary,  procured.  It 
is  in  the  arrangement  that  especially  consists  the  educational 
power  of  the  lesson.  The  spirit  of  scrupulousness,  of  accu- 
racy, of  neatness,  is  developed  by  the  external  technique, 
which  is  carefully  arranged  in  its  subordinate  parts  accord- 
ing to  its  content.  The  teacher  must  therefore  insist  upon  it 
that  work  shall  cease  at  the  exact  time,  that  the  work  be  well- 
done,  &c.,  for  on  these  little  things  many  greater  things  eth- 
ically depend. 

—  To  choose  one's  time  for  any  work  is  often  difficult 
because  of  the  pressure  of  a  multitude  of  demands,  but  in 
general  it  should  be  determined  that  the  strongest  and  keen- 
est energy  of  the  thinking  activity  and  of  memory — this  being 
demanded  by  the  work — should  have  appropriated  to  it  the 
first  half  of  the  day. — 

§  118.    The  dynamical  element  consists  of  the  previously 


58  The  Act  of  Learning. 

developed  power  of  Attention,  without  which  all  the  exposi- 
tion made  by  the  teacher  to  the  pupil  remains  entirely  for- 
eign to  him,  all  apparatus  is  dead,  all  arrangement  of  no 
avail,  all  teaching  fruitless,  if  the  pupil  does  not  by  his  free 
activity  receive  into  his  inner  self  what  one  teaches  him,  and 
thus  make  it  his  own  property. 

§  119.  This  appropriation  must  not  limit  itself,  however,  to 
the  first  acquisition  of  any  knowledge  or  skill,  but  it  must 
give  free  existence  to  whatever  the  pupil  has  learned ;  it  must 
make  it  perfectly  manageable  and  natural,  so  that  it  shall 
appear  to  be  a  part  of  himself.  This  must  be  brought  about 
by  means  of  Repetition.  This  will  mechanically  secure  that 
which  the  attention  first  grasped. 

§  120.  The  careful,  persistent,  living  activity  of  the  pupil 
in  these  acts  we  call  Industry.  Its  negative  extreme  is  Lazi- 
ness, which  is  deserving  of  punishment  inasmuch  as  it  passes 
over  into  a  want  of  self-determination.  Man  is  by  nature  lazy. 
But  mind,  which  is  only  in  its  act,  must  resolve  upon  ac- 
tivity. This  connection  of  Industry  with  human  freedom, 
with  the  very  essence  of  mind,  makes  laziness  appear  blame- 
worthy. The  really  civilized  man,  therefore,  no  longer  knows 
that  absolute  inaction  which  is  the  greatest  enjoyment  to  the 
barbarian,  and  he  fills  up  his  leisure  with  a  variety  of  easier 
and  lighter  work.  The  positive  extreme  of  Industry  is  the 
unreasonable  activity  which  rushes  irf  breathless  chase  from 
one  action  to  another,  from  this  to  that,  straining  the  person 
with  the  immense  quantity  of  his  work.  Such  an  activity, 
going  beyond  itself  and  seldom  reaching  deliberation,  is  un- 
worthy of  a  man.  It  destroys  the  agreeable  quiet  which  in 
all  industry  should  penetrate  and  inspire  the  deed.  Nothing 
is  more  repulsive  than  the  beggarly  pride  of  such  stupid  la- 
boriousness.  One  should  not  endure  for  a  moment  to  have 
the  pupil,  seeking  for  distinction,  begin  to  pride  himself  on  an 
extra  industry.  Education  must  accustom  him  to  use  a  regu- 
lar assiduity.  The  frame  of  mind  suitable  for  work  often 
does  not  exist  at  the  time  when  work  should  begin,  but  more 
frequently  it  makes  its  appearance  after  we  have  begun.  The 
subject  takes  its  own  time  to  awaken  us.  Industry,  inspired 
by  a  love  and  regard  for  work,  has  in  its  quiet  uniformity  a 
great  force,  without  which  no  one  can  accomplish  anything 


The  Act  of  Learning.  69 

essential.  The  world,  therefore,  holds  Industry  worthy  of 
honor ;  and  to  the  Romans,  a  nation  of  the  most  persistent 
perseverance,  we  owe  the  inspiring  words,  "  Incepto  tantum 
opus  est,  ccetera  res  expediet";  and,  "  Labor  Improbus  omnia 
mncit." 

— "  Every  one  may  glory  in  his  industry !"  This  is  a  true 
word  from  the  lips  of  a  truly  industrious  man,  who  was  also 
one  of  the  most  modest.  But  Lessing  did  not,  however,  mean 
by  them  to  charter  Pharisaical  pedantry.  The  necessity 
sometimes  of  giving  one's  self  to  an  excess  of  work  injurious 
to  the  health,  generally  arises  from  the  fact  that  he  has  not 
at  other  times  made  use  of  the  requisite  attention  to  the  ne- 
cessary industry,  and  then  attempts  suddenly  and  as  by  a 
forced  march  to  storm  his  way  to  his  end.  The  result  of  such 
over-exertion  is  naturally  entire  prostration.  The  pupil  is 
therefore  to  be  accustomed  to  a  generally  uniform  industry, 
which  may  extend  itself  at  regular  intervals  without  his 
thereby  overstraining  himself.  What  is  really  gained  by  a 
young  man  who  has  hitherto  neglected  time  and  opportu- 
nity, and  who,  when  examination  presses,  overworks  him- 
self, perhaps  standing  the  test  with  honor,  and  then  must 
rest  for  months  afterwards  from  the  over-effort  ?  On  all  such 
occasions  attention  is  not  objective  and  dispassionate,  but 
rather  becomes,  through  anxiety  to  pass  the  examination, 
restless  and  corrupted  by  egotism ;  and  the  usual  evil  result 
of  such  compulsory  industry  is  the  ephemeral  character  of 
the  knowledge  thus  gained.  "Lightly  come,  lightly  go," 
says  the  proverb. 

—A  special  worth  is  always  attached  to  study  far  into  the 
night.  The  student's  "midnight  lamp"  always  claims  for  itself 
a  certain  veneration.  But  this  is  vanity.  In  the  first  place,  it 
is  injurious  to  contradict  Nature  by  working  through  the 
night,  which  she  has  ordained  for  sleep ;  secondly,  the  ques- 
tion is  not  as  to  the  number  of  hours  spent  in  work  and  their 
position  in  the  twenty-four,  but  as  to  the  quality  of  the  work. 
With  regard  to  the  value  of  my  work,  it  is  of  no  moment 
whatsoever  whether  I  have  done  it  it  in  the  morning  or  in  the 
evening,  or  how  long  I  have  labored,  and  it  is  of  no  conse- 
quence to  any  one  except  to  my  own  very  unimportant  self. 


60  The  Act  of  Learning. 

Finally,  the  question  presents  itself  whether  these  gentlemen 
who  boast  so  much  of  their  midnight  work  do  not  sleep  in 
the  daytime ! — 

§  121,  But  Industry  has  also  two  other  extremes :  seeming- 
laziness  and  seeming-industry.  Seeming-laziness  is  the  neg- 
lecting of  the  usual  activity  in  one  department  because  a  man 
is  so  much  more  active  in  another.  The  mind  possessed  with 
the  liveliest  interest  in  one  subject  buries  itself  in  it,  and,  be- 
cause of  this,  cannot  give  itself  up  to  another  which  before 
had  engrossed  the  attention.  Thus  it  appears  more  idle  than 
it  is,  or  rather  it  appears  to  be  idle  just  becuse  it  is  more  in- 
dustrious. This  is  especially  the  case,  in  passing  from  one 
subject  of  instruction  to  another.  The  pupil  should  acquire 
such  a  flexibility  in  his  intellectual  powers  that  the  rapid 
relinquishment  of  one  subject  and  the  taking  up  of  another 
should  not  be  too  difficult.  Nothing  is  more  natural  than 
that  when  he  is  excited  he  should  go  back  to  the  subject  that 
has  just  been  presented  to  him,  and  that  he,  feeling  himself 
restrained,  shall  remain  untouched  by  the  following  lesson, 
which  may  be  of  an  entirely  different  nature.  The  young 
soul  is  brooding  over  what  has  been  said,  and  is  really  ex- 
ercising an  intensive  activity,  though  it  appears  to  be  idle. 
But  in  seeming-industry  all  the  external  motives  of  activity, 
all  the  mechanism  of  work,  manifest  themselves  noisily,  while 
there  is  no  true  energy  of  attention  and  productivity.  One 
busies  himself  with  all  the  apparatus  of  work;  he  heaps  up 
instruments  and  books  around  him ;  he  sketches  plans ;  he 
spends  many  hours  staring  into  vacancy,  biting  his  pen, 
gazing  at  words,  drawings,  numbers,  &c.  Boys,  under  the 
protection  of  so  great  a  scaffolding  for  work  erected  around 
them,  often  carry  on  their  own  amusements.  Men,  who  ar- 
rive at  no  real  concentration  of  their  force,  no  clear  denning 
of  their  vocation,  no  firm  decision  as  to  their  action,  dissipate 
their  power  in  what  is  too  often  a  great  activity  with  abso- 
lutely no  result.  They  are  busy,  very  busy  ;  they  have  hard- 
ly time  to  do  this  thing  because  they  really  wish  or  ought  to 
do  that;  but,  with  all  their  driving,  their  energy  is  all  dissi- 
pated, and  nothing  comes  from  their  countless  labors. 


The  Modality  of  the  Process  of  Teaching.  61 

III.    The  Modality  of  the  Process  of  Teaching. 

§  122.  Now  that  we  have  learned  something  of  the  relation 
of  the  teacher  to  the  taught,  and  of  the  process  of  learning 
itself,  we  must  examine  the  mode  and  manner  of  instruction. 
This  may  have  (1)  the  character  of  contingency:  the  way  in 
which  our  immediate  existence  in  the  world,  our  life,  teaches 
us  ;  or  it  may  be  given  (2)  by  the  printed  page ;  or  (3)  it  may 
take  the  shape  of  formal  oral  instruction. 

§  123.  (1)  For  the  most,  the  best,  and  the  mightiest  things 
that  we  know  we  are  indebted  to  Life  itself.  The  sum  of  per- 
ceptions which  a  human  being  absorbs  into  himself  up  to  the 
fourth  or  fifth  year  of  his  life  is  incalculable ;  and  after  this 
time  we  involuntarily  gain  by  immediate  contact  with  the 
world  countless  ideas.  But  especially  we  understand  by  the 
phrase  "  the  School  of  Life,"  the  ethical  knowlege  which  we 
gain  by  what  happens  in  our  own  lives. 

— If  one  says,  Vitce  non  scholce  discendum  est,  one  can 
also  say,  Vita  docet.  Without  the  power  exercised  by  the 
immediate  world  our  intelligence  would  remain  abstract  and 
lifeless. — 

§  124.  (2)  What  we  learn  through  books  is  the  opposite  of 
that  which  we  learn  through  living.  Life  forces  upon  us  the 
knowledge  it  has  to  give ;  the  book,  on  the  contrary,  is  en- 
tirely passive.  It  is  locked  up  in  itself;  it  cannot  be  altered ; 
but  it  waits  by  us  till  we  wish  to  use  it.  We  can  read  it  ra- 
pidly or  slowly ;  we  can  simply  turn  over  its  leaves — what  in 
modern  times  one  calls  reading ; — we  can  read  it  from  begin- 
ning to  end  or  from  end  to  beginning;  we  can  stop,  begin 
again,  skip  over  passages,  or  cut  them  short,  as  we  like.  To 
this  extent  the  book  is  the  most  convenient  means  for  instruc- 
tion If  we  are  indebted  to  Life  for  our  perceptions,  we  must 
chieny  thank  books  for  our  understanding  of  our  perceptions. 
We  call  book-instruction  "dead"  when  it  lacks,  for  the  expo- 
sition which  it  gives,  a  foundation  in  our  perceptions,  or  when 
we  do  not  add  to  the  printed  description  the  perceptions 
which  it  implies;  and  the  two  are  quite  different. 

§  125.  Books,  as  well  as  life,  teach  us  many  things  which 
we  did  not  previously  intend  to  learn  directly  from  them. 
From  foreign  romances  e.g.  we  learn,  first  of  all,  while  we 
read  them  for  entertainment,  the  foreign  language,  history 


62  The  Modality  of  the  Process  of  Teaching. 

or  geography,  &c.  We  must  distinguish  from  such  books 
as  those  which  bring  to  us,  as  it  were  accidentally,  a  knowl- 
edge for  which  we  were  not  seeking,  the  books  which  are 
expressly  intended  to  instruct.  These  must  (d)  in  their  con- 
sideration of  the  subject  give  us  the  principal  results  of  any 
department  of  knowledge,  and  denote  the  points  from  which 
the  next  advance  must  be  made,  because  every  science  arises 
at  certain  results  which  are  themselves  again  new  problems  ; 
(5)  in  the  consideration  of  the  particulars  it  must  be  exhaust- 
ive, i.e.  no  essential  elements  of  a  science  must  be  omitted. 
But  this  exhaustiveness  of  execution  has  different  meanings 
according  to  the  stand-points  of  those  for  whom  it  is  made. 
How  far  we  shall  pass  from  the  universality  of  the  principal 
determinations  into  the  multiplicity  of  the  Particular,  into 
the  fulness  of  detail,  cannot  be  definitely  determined,  and 
must  vary,  according  to  the  aim  of  the  book,  as  to  whether 
it  is  intended  for  the  apprentice,  the  journeyman,  or  the  mas- 
ter; (c)  the  expression  must  be  precise,  i.e.  the  maximum  of 
clearness  must  be  combined  with  the  maximum  of  brevity. 

— The  writing  of  a  text-book  is  on  this  account  one  of  the 
most  difficult  tasks,  and  it  can  be  successfully  accomplished 
only  by  those  who  are  masters  in  a  science  or  art,  and  who 
combine  with  great  culture  and  talent  great  experience  as 
teachers.  Unfortunately  many  dabblers  in  knowledge  under- 
value the  difficulty  of  writing  text-books  because  they  think 
that  they  are  called  upon  to  aid  in  the  spread  of  science,  and 
because  the  writing  of  compendiums  has  thus  come  to  be  an 
avocation,  so  that  authors  and  publishers  have  made  out  of 
text-books  a  profitable  business  and  good  incomes.  In  all 
sciences  and  arts  there  exists  a  quantity  of  material  which 
is  common  property,  which  is  disposed  of  now  in  one  way, 
now  in  another.  The  majority  of  compendiums  can  be  dis- 
tinguished from  each  other  only  by  the  kind  of  paper,  print- 
ing, the  name  of  the  publisher  or  bookseller,  or  by  arbitrary 
changes  in  the  arrangement  and  execution.  The  want  of 
principle  with  which  this  work  is  carried  on  is  incredible. 
Many  governments  have  on  this  account  fixed  prices  for  text- 
books, and  commissioners  to  select  them.  This  in  itself  is 
right  and  proper,  but  the  use  of  any  book  should  be  left  op- 
tional, so  that  the  one-sidedness  of  a  science  patronized  by 


The  Modality  of  the  Process  of  Teaching.  63 

government  as  it  were  patented,  may  not  be  created  through, 
the  pressure  of  such  introduction.  A  state  may  through  its 
censorship  oppose  poor  text-books,  and  recommend  good 
ones ;  but  it  may  not  establish  as  it  were  a  state-science,  a 
state-art,  in  which  only  the  ideas,  laws  and  forms  sanctioned 
by  it  shall  be  allowed.  The  Germans  are  fortunate,  in  con- 
sequence of  their  philosophical  criticism,  in  the  production  of 
better  and  better  text-books,  among  which  may  be  mentioned 
Koberstein's,  Gervinus',  and  Vilmar's  Histories  of  Litera- 
ture, Ellendt's  General  History,  Blumenbach's  and  Burmeis- 
ter's  Natural  History,  Marheineke's  text-book  on  Religion, 
Schwegler's  History  of  Philosophy,  &c.  So  much  the  more 
unaccountable  is  it  that,  with  such  excellent  books,  the  evil 
of  such  characterless  books,  partly  inadequate  and  partly  in 
poor  style,  should  still  exist  when  there  is  no  necessity  for  it. 
The  common  style  of  paragraph-writing  has  become  obnox- 
ious, under  the  name  of  Compendium-style,  as  the  most  stiff 
and  affected  style  of  writing. — 

§  126.  A  text-book  must  be  differently  written  according 
as  it  is  intended  for  a  book  for  private  study  or  for  purposes 
of  general  circulation.  If  the  first,  it  must  give  more,  and 
must  develop  more  clearly  the  internal  relations ;  if  the  se- 
cond, it  should  be  shorter,  and  proceed  from  axiomatic  and 
clear  postulates  to  their  signification,  and  these  must  have 
an  epigrammatic  pureness  which  should  leave  something  to 
be  guessed.  Because  for  these  a  commentary  is  needed  which 
it  is  the  teacher's  duty  to  supply,  such  a  sketch  is  usually 
accompanied  by  the  fuller  text-book  which  was  arranged 
for  private  study. 

— It  is  the  custom  -to  call  the  proper  text-book  the  "  small" 
one,  and  that  which  explains. and  illustrates,  the  "large" 
one.  Thus  we  have  the  Small  and  the  Large  Gervinus,  &c. — 

§  127.  (3)  The  text-book  which  presupposes  oral  explana- 
tion forms  the  transition  to  Oral  instruction  itself.  Since 
speech  is  the  natural  and  original  form  in  which  mind  mani- 
fests itself,  no  book  can  rival  it.  The  living  word  is  the  most 
powerful  agent  of  instruction.  However  common  and  cheap 
printing  may  have  rendered  books  as  the  most  convenient 
means  of  education  —  however  possible  may  have  become, 
through  the  multiplication  of  facilities  for  intercourse  and 


64  The  Modality  of  the  Process  of  Teaching. 

the  rapidity  of  transportation,  the  immediate  viewing  of  hu- 
man life,  the  most  forcible  educational  means,  nevertheless 
the  living  word  still  asserts  its  supremacy.  In  two  cases 
especially  is  it  indispensable  :  one  is  when  some  knowledge 
is  to  be  communicated  which  as  yet  is  found  in  no  compen- 
dium, and  the  other  when  a  living  language  is  to  be  taught, 
for  in  this  case  the  printed  page  is  entirely  inadequate.  One 
can  learn  from  books  to  understand  Spanish,  French,  English, 
Danish,  &c.,  but  not  to  speak  them ;  to  do  this  he  must  hear 
them,  partly  that  his  ear  may  become  accustomed  to  the 
sounds,  partly  that  his  vocal  organs  may  learn  correctly  to 
imitate  them. 

§  128.  Life  surprises  and  overpowers  us  with  the  knowl- 
edge which  it  gains ;  the  book,  impassive,  waits  our  conveni- 
ence ;  the  teacher,  superior  to  us,  perfectly  prepared  in  com- 
parison with  us,  consults  our  necessity,  and  with  his  living 
speech  uses  a  gentle  force  to  which  we  can  yield  without 
losing  our  freedom.  Listening  is  easier  than  reading. 

— Sovereigns  e.g.  seldom  read  themselves,  but  have  ser- 
vants who  read  to  them. — 

•  §  129.  Oral  instruction  may  (1)  give  the  subject,  which  is 
to  be  learned,  in  a  connected  statement,  or  (2)  it  may  unfold 
it  by  means  of  question  and  answer.  The  first  decidedly  pre- 
supposes the  theoretical  inequality  of  the  teacher  and  the 
taught.  Because  one  can  speak  while  many  can  listen,  this 
is  especially  adapted  to  the  instruction  of  large  numbers. 
The  second  method  is  either  that  of  the  catechism  or  the  dia- 
logue. The  catechetical  is  connected  with  the  tirst  kind  of 
oral  instruction  above  designated  because  it  makes  demand 
upon  the  memory  of  the  learner  only  for  the  answer  to  one 
question  at  a  time,  and  is  hence  very  often  and  very  absurdly 
called  the  Socratic  method.  In  teaching  by  means  of  the  dia- 
logue, we  try,  by  means  of  a  reciprocal  interchange  of  thought, 
to  solve  in  common  some  problem,  proceeding  according  to  the 
necessary  forms  of  reason.  But  in  this  we  can  make  a  dis- 
tinction. One  speaker  may  be  superior  to  the  rest,  may  hold 
in  his  own  hand  the  thread  of  the  conversation  and  may  guide 
it  himself;  or,  those  who  min^ie  in  it  may  be- perfectly  equal 
in  intellect  and  culture,  and  may  each  take  part  in  the  devel- 
opment with  equal  indepeml-  <  *«.  In  this  latter  case,  this 


The  Modality  of  the  Process  of  Teaching.  65 

true  reciprocity  gives  us  the  proper  dramatic  dialogue,  which, 
contains  in  itself  all  forms  of  exposition,  and  may  pass 
from  narration,  description,  and  analysis,  through  satire  and 
irony,  to  veritable  humor.  When  it  does  this,  the  dialogue 
is  the  loftiest  result  of  intelligence  and  the  means  of  its  pur- 
est enjoyment. 

— This  alternate  teaching,  in  which  the  one  who  has  been 
taught  takes  the  teacher's  place,  can  be  used  only  where 
there  is  a  content  which  admits  of  a  mechanical  treatment. 
The  Hindoos  made  use  of  it  in  very  ancient  times.  Bell  and 
Lancaster  have  transplanted  it  for  the  teaching  of  poor  chil- 
dren in  Europe  and  America.  For  the  teaching  of  the  con- 
ventionalities— reading,  writing,  and  arithmetic — as  well  as 
for  the  learning  by  heart  of  names,  sentences,  &c.,  it  suffices, 
but  not  for  any  scientific  culture.  Where  we  have  large  num- 
bers to  instruct,  the  giving  of  the  fully  developed  statement 
(the  first  form)  is  necessary,  since  the  dialogue,  though  it  may 
be  elsewhere  suitable,  allows  only  a  few  to  take  part  in  it. 
And  if  we  take  the  second  form,  we  must,  if  we  have  a  large 
number  of  pupils,  make  use  of  the  catechetical  method  only. 
What  is  known  as  the  conversational  method  has  been  some- 
times suggested  for  our  university  instruction.  Diesterweg  in 
Berlin  insists  upon  it.  Here  and  there  the  attempt  has  been 
made,  but  without  any  result.  In  the  university,  the  lecture 
of  the  teacher  as  a  self-developing  whole  is  contrasted  with 
the  scientific  discussion  of  the  students,  in  which  they  as 
equals  work  over  with  perfect  freedom  what  they  have  heard. 
Diesterweg  was  wrong  in  considering  the  lecture-system  as 
the  principal  cause  of  the  lack  of  scientific  interest  which  he 
thought  he  perceived  in  our  universities.  Kant,  Fichte,  Schel- 
ling,  Schleiermacher,  Wolf,  Niebuhr,  &c.,  taught  by  lectures 
and  awakened  the  liveliest  enthusiasm.  But  Diesterweg  is 
quite  right  in  saying  that  the  students  should  not  be  de- 
graded to  writing-machines.  But  this  is  generally  conceded, 
and  a  pedantic  amount  of  copying  more  and  more  begins  to 
be  considered  as  out  of  date  at  our  universities.  Neverthe- 
less, a  new  pedantry,  that  of  the  wholly  extempore  lecture, 
should  not  be  introduced;  but  a  brief  summary  of  the  ex- 
tempore unfolding  of  the  lecture  may  be  dictated  and  serve  a 
very  important  purpose,  of  the  lecture  may  be  copied.  The 
6 


66  The  Modality  of  the  Process  of  Teaching. 

great  efficacy  of  the  oral  exposition  does  not  so  much  consist 
in  the  fact  that  it  is  perfectly  free,  as  that  it  presents  to  im- 
mediate view  a  person  who  has  made  himself  the  bearer  of  a 
science  or  an  art,  and  has  found  what  constitutes  its  essence. 
Its  power  springs,  above  all,  from  the  genuineness  of  the 
lecture,  the  originality  of  its  content,  and  the  elegance  of  its 
form :  whether  it  is  written  or  extemporized,  is  a  matter  of 
little  moment.  Niebuhr  e.g.  read,  word  for  word,  from  his 
manuscript,  and  what  a  teacher  was  he !  —  The  catechetical 
way  of  teaching  is  not  demanded  at  the  university  except  in 
special  examinations ;  it  belongs  to  the  private  work  of  the 
student,  who  must  learn  to  be  industrious  of  his  own  free 
impulse.  The  private  tutor  can  best  conduct  reviews.  —  The 
institution  which  presupposing  the  lecture-system  combines 
in  itself  original  production  with  criticism,  and  the  connected 
exposition  with  the  conversation,  is  .the  seminary.  It  pur- 
sues a  well-defined  path,  and  confines  itself  to  a  small  circle 
of  associates  whose  grades  of  culture  are  very  nearly  the 
same.  Here,  therefore,  can  the  dialogue  be  strongly  devel- 
oped because  it  has  a  fixed  foundation,  and  each  one  can 
take  part  in  the  conversation ;  whereas,  from  the  variety  of 
opinions  among  a  great  number,  it  is  easily  perverted  into 
an  aimless  talk,  and  the  majority  of  the  hearers,  who  have 
no  chance  to  speak,  become  weary. — 

§  130.  As-  to  the  way  in  which  the  lecture  is  carried  out,  it 
may  be  so  arranged  as  to  give  the  whole  stock  of  information 
acquired,  or,  without  beiug  so  exact  and  so  complete,  it -may 
bring  to  its  elucidation  only  a  relatively  inexact  and  general 
'information.  The  ancients  called  the  first  method  the  eso- 
teric and  the  second  the  exoteric,  as  we  give  to  such  lectures 
now,  respectively,  the  names  scholastic  and  popular.  The 
first  makes  use  of  terms  which  have  become  technical  in 
science  or  art,  and  proceeds  syllogistically  to  combine  the 
isolated  ideas ;  the  second  endeavors  to  substitute  for  techni- 
calities generally  understood  signs,  and  conceals  the  exact- 
ness of  the  formal  conclusion  by  means  of  a  conversational 
style.  It  is  possible  to  conceive  of  a  perfectly  methodical 
treatment  of  a  science  which  at  the  same  time  shall  be  gen- 
erally comprehensible  if  it  strives  to  attain  the  transparency 
of  real  beauty.  A  scientific  work  of  art  may  be  correctly  said 


Tlie  Modality  of  the  Process  of  Teaching.  67 

to  be  popular,  as  e.g.  lias  happened  to  Herder's  Ideas  on  the 
Philosophy  of  the  History  of  Mankind. 

— Beauty  is  the  element  which  is  comprehended  by  all, 
and  as  we  declare  our  enmity  to  the  distorted  picture-books, 
books  of  amusement,  and  to  the  mischievous  character  of 
"  Compendiums,"  so  we  must  also  oppose  the  popular  pub- 
lications which  style  themselves  Science  made  JEasy,  &c., 
in  order  to  attract  more  purchasers  by  this  alluring  title. 
Kant  in  his  Logic  calls  the  extreme  of  explanation  Pedantry 
and  Gallantry.  This  last  expression  would  be  very  charac- 
teristic in  our  times,  since  one  attains  the  height  of  popula- 
rity now  if  he  makes  himself  easily  intelligible  to  ladies — a 
didactic  triumph  which  one  attains  only  by  omitting  every- 
thing that  is  profound  or  complicated,  and  saying  only  what 
exists  already  in  the  consciousness  of  every  one,  by  depriv- 
ing the  subject  dealt  with  of  all  seriousness,  and  sparing 
neither  pictures,  anecdotes,  jokes,  nor  pretty  formalities  of 
speech.  Elsewhere  Kant  says:  "In  the  effort  to  produce  in 
our  knowledge  the  completeness  of  scholarly  thoroughness, 
and  at  the  same  time  a  popular  character,  without  in  the 
effort  falling  into  the  above-mentioned  errors  of  an  affected 
thoroughness  or  an  affected  popularity,  we  must,  first  of  all, 
look  out  for  the  scholarly  completeness  of  our  scientific 
knowledge,  the  methodical  form  of  thoroughness,  and  first 
ask  how  we  can  make  really  popular  the  knowledge  method- 
ically acquired  at  school,  i.e.  how  we  can  make  it  easy  and 
generally  communicable,  and  yet  at  the  same  time  not  sup- 
plant thoroughness  by  popularity.  For  scholarly  complete- 
ness must  not  be  sacrificed  to  popularity  to  please  the  peo- 
ple, unless  science  is  to  become  a  plaything  or  trifling."  It  is 
perfectly  plain  that  all  that  was  said  before  of  the  psycho- 
logical and  the  logical  methods  must  be  taken  into  account 
in  the  manner  of  the  statement. — 

§  131.  It  has  been  already  remarked  (§  21),  in  speaking  of 
the  nature  of  education,  that  the  office  of  the  instructor  must 
necessarily  vary  with  the  growing  culture.  But  attention 
must  here  again  be  called  to  the  fact,  that  education,  in  what- 
ever stage  of  culture,  must  conform  to  the  law  which,  as  the 
internal  logic  of  Being,  determines  all  objective  developments 
of  nature  and  of  history.  The  Family  gives  the  child  his  first 


68  TJie  Modality  of  the  Process  of  TeacJiing. 

instruction ;  between  this  and  the  school  comes  the  teaching 
of  the  tutor;  the  school  stands  independently  as  the  antithe- 
sis of  the  family,  and  presents  three  essentially  different 
forms  according  as  it  imparts  a  general  preparatory  instruc- 
tion, or  special  teaching  for  different  callings,  or  a  universal 
scientific  cultivation.     Universality  passes  over  through  par- 
ticularizing into  individuality,  which  contains  both  the  gen- 
eral and  the  particular  freely  in  itself.    All  citizens  of  a  state 
should  have  (1)  a  general  education  which  (a)  makes  them 
familiar  with  reading,  writing,  and  arithmetic,  these  being 
the  means  of  all  theoretical  culture ;  then  (b)  hands  over  to 
them  a  picture  of  the  world  in  its  principal  phases,  so  that 
they  as  citizens  of  the  world  can  find  their  proper  status  on 
our  planet;  and,  finally,  it  must  (c)  instruct  him  in  the  his- 
tory of  his  own  state,  so  that  he  may  see  that  the  circumstan- 
ces in  which  he  lives  are  the  result  of  a  determined  past  in 
its  connection  with  the  history  of  the  rest  of  the  world,  and 
so  may  learn  rightly  to  estimate  the  interests  of  his  own  coun- 
try in  view  of  their  necessary  relation  to  the  future.     This 
work  the  elementary  schools  have  to  perform.     From  this, 
through  the  Realschule  (our  scientific  High  School  course)  they 
pass  into  the  school  where  some  particular  branch  of  science 
is  taught,  and  through  the  Gymnasium  (classical  course  of  a 
High  School  or  College)  to  the  University.    From  its  general 
basis  develop  (2)  the  educational  institutions  that  work  tow- 
ards some  special  education  which  leads  over  to  the  exercise 
of  some  art.   These  we  call  Technological  schools,  where  one 
may  learn  farming,  mining,  a  craft,  a  trade,  navigation,  war, 
&c.     This  kind  of  education  may  be  specialized  indefinitely 
with  the  growth  of  culture,  because  any  one  branch  is  capa- 
ble in  its  negative  aspect  of  such  educational  separation,  as 
e.g.  in  foundling  hospitals  and  orphan  asylums,  in  blind  and 
deaf  and   dumb  institutions.     The   abstract  universality  of 
the  Elementary  school  and  the  one-sided  particularity  of  the 
Technological  school, however,  is  subsumed  under  a  concrete 
universality,  which,  withou.t  aiming  directly  at  utility,  treats 
science  and  art  on  all  sides  as  their  own  end  and  aim.     Sci- 
entia,  est  potentia,  said  Lord  Bacon.    Practical  utility  results 
indirectly   through  the  progress  which  Scientific   Cognition 
makes  in  this  free  attitude,  because  it  collects  itself  out  of 


The  Modality  of  the  Process  of  Teaching.  69 

the  dissipation  through  manifold  details  into  a  universal 
idea  and  attains  a  profounder  insight  thereby.  This  organ- 
ism for  the  purpose  of  instruction  is  properly  called  a  Uni- 
versity. By  it  the  educational  organization  is  perfected. 

— It  is  essentially  seen  that  no  more  than  these  three  types 
of  schools  can  exist,  and  that  they  must  all  exist  in  a  per- 
fectly organized  civilization.  Their  titles  and  the  plan  of 
their  special  teaching  may  be  very  different  among  different 
nations  and  at  different  times,  but  this  need  not  prevent  the 
recognition  in  them  of  the  ideas  which  determine  them.  Still 
less  should  the  imperfect  ways  in  which  they  manifest  them- 
selves induce  us  to  condemn  them.  It  is  the  modern  tendency 
to  undervalue  the  University  as  an  institution  which  we  had 
inherited  from  the  middle  ages,  and  with  which  we  could  at 
present  dispense.  This  is  an  error.  The  university  presents 
just  as  necessary  a  form  of  instruction  as  the  elementary 
school  or  the  technological  school.  Not  the  abolition  of  the 
university,  but  a  reform  which  shall  adapt  it  to  the  spirit  of 
the  age,  is  the  advance  which  we  have  to  make.  That  there 
are  to  be  found  outside  of  the  university  men  of  the  most 
thorough  and  elegant  culture,  who  can  give  the  most  excel- 
lent instruction  in  a  science  or  an  art,  is  most  certain.  But 
it  is  a  characteristic  of  the  university  in  its  teaching  to  do 
away  with  contingency  which  is  unavoidable  in  case  of  pri- 
vate voluntary  efforts.  The  university  presents  an  organic, 
self-conscious,  encyclopaedic  representation  of  all  the  sciences, 
and  thus  is  created  to  a  greater  or  less  degree  an  intellectual 
atmosphere  which  no  other  place  can  give.  Through  this,  all 
sciences  and  their  aims  are  seen  as  of  equal  authority — a  per- 
sonal stress  is  laid  upon  the  connection  of  the  sciences.  The 
imperfections  of  a  university,  which  arise  through  the  rivalry 
of  external  ambition,  through  the  necessity  of  financial  suc- 
cess, through  the  jealousy  of  different  parties,  through  schol- 
arships, &c.,  are  finitudes  which  it  has  in  common  with  all 
human  institutions,  and  on  whose  account  they  are  not  all  to 
be  thrown  away. — Art-academies  are  for  Art  what  universi- 
ties are  for  Science.  They  are  inferior  to  them  in  so  far  as 
they  appear  more  under  the  form  of  special  schools,  as  schools 
of  architecture,  of  painting,  and  conservatories  of  music ; 
while  really  it  may  well  be  supposed  that  Architecture, 


70  The  Modality  of  the  Process  of  Teaching . 

Sculpture,  Painting,  Music,  the  Orchestra,  and  the  Drama, 
are,  like  the  Sciences,  bound  together  in  a  Universitas  arti- 
um,  and  that  by  means  of  their  internal  reciprocal  action 
new  results  would  follow.  —  Academies,  as  isolated  master- 
schools,  which  follow  no  particular  line  of  teaching,  are 
entirely  superfluous,  and  serve  only  as  a  Prytaneum  for 
meritorious  scholars,  and  to  reward  industry  through  the 
prizes  which  they  offer.  In  their  idea  they  belong  with  the 
university,  this  appearing  externally  in  the  fact  that  most  of 
their  members  are  university  professors.  But  as  institutions 
for  ostentation  by  which  the  ambition  of  the  learned  was 
flattered,  and  to  surround  princes  with  scientific  glory  as 
scientific  societies  attached  to  a  court,  they  have  lost  all  sig- 
nificance. They  ceased  to  flourish  with  the  Ptolemies  and 
the  Egyptian  caliphs,  and  with  absolute  monarchical  govern- 
ments.— In  modern  times  we  have  passed  beyond  the  abstract 
jealousy  of  the  so-called  Humanities  and  the  Natural  Scien- 
ces, because  we  comprehend  that  each  part  of  the  totality  can 
be  realized  in  a  proper  sense  only  by  its  development  as  rela- 
tively independent.  Thus  the  gymnasium  has  its  place  as  that 
elementary  school  which  through  a  general  culture,  by  means 
of  the  knowledge  of  the  language  and  history  of  the  Greeks 
and  Romans,  prepares  for  the  university  ;  while,  on  the  other 
hand,  the  Realschule,  by  special  attention  to  Natural  Science 
and  the  living  languages,  constitutes  the  transition  to  the 
technological  schools.  Nevertheless,  because  the  university 
embraces  the  Science  of  Nature,  of  Technology,  of  Trade,  of 
Finance,  ajid  of  Statistics,  the  pupils  who  have  graduated 
from  the  so-called  high  schools  (holiern  Burgersclmleri)  and 
from  the  Realschulen  will  be  brought  together  at  the  uni- 
versity.— 

§  132.  The  technique  of  the  school  will  be  determined  in 
its  details  by  the  peculiarity  of  its  aim.  But  in  general  every 
school,  no  matter  what  it  teaches,  ought  to  have  some  system 
of  rules  and  regulations  by  which  the  relation  of  the  pupil  to 
the  institution,  of  the  pupils  to  each  other,  their  relation  to 
the  teacher,  and  that  of  the  teachers  to  each  other  as  well  as 
to  the  supervisory  authority,  the  programme  of  lessons,  the 
apparatus,  of  the  changes  of  work  and  recreation,  shall  be 
clearly  set  forth.  The  course  of  study  must  be  arranged  so 


The  Modality  of  the  Process  of  Teaching.  71 

as  to  avoid  two  extremes :  on  the  one  hand,  it  has  to  keep  in 
view  the  special  aim  of  the  school,  and  according  to  this  it 
tends  to  contract  itself.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  it  must  con- 
sider the  relative  dependence  of  one  specialty  to  other  spe- 
cialties and  to  general  culture.  It  must  leave  the  transition 
free,  and  in  this  it  tends  to  expand  itself.  The  difficulty  is 
here  so  to  assign  the  limits  that  the  special  task  of  the  school 
«  shall  not  be  sacrificed  and  deprived  of  the  means  of  perform- 
ance which  it  (since  it  is  also  always  only  a  part  of  the  whole 
culture)  receives  by  means  of  its  reciprocal  action  with  other 
departments.  The  programme  must  assign  the  exact  amount 
of  time  which  can  be  appropriated  to  every  study.  It  must 
prescribe  the  order  in  which  they  shall  follow  each  other; 
it  must,  as  far  as  possible,  unite  kindred  subjects,  so  as  to 
avoid  the  useless  repetition  which  dulls  the  charm  of  study ; 
it  must,  in  determining  the  order,  bear  in  mind  at  the  same 
time  the  necessity  imposed  by  the  subject  itself  and  the  psy- 
chological progression  of  intelligence  from  perception,  through 
conception,  to  the  thinking  activity  which  grasps  all.  It  must 
periodically  be  submitted  to  revision,  so  that  all  matter  which 
has,  through  the  changed  state  of  general  culture,  become  out 
of  date,  may  be  rejected,  and  that  that  which  has  proved  itself 
inimitable  may  be  appropriated ;  in  general,  so  that  it  may 
be  kept  up  to  the  requirements  of  the  times.  And,  finally,  the 
school  must,  by  examinations  and  reports,  aid  the  pupil  in 
the  acquirement  of  a  knowledge  of  his  real  standing.  The 
examination  lets  him  know  what  he  has  really  learned,  and 
what  he  is  able  to  do :  the  report  gives  him  an  account  of  his 
culture,  exhibits  to  him  in  what  he  has  made  improvement 
and  in  what  he  has  fallen  behind,  what  defects  he  has  shown, 
what  talents  he  has  displayed,  what  errors  committed,  and 
in  what  relation  stands  his  theoretical  development  to  his 
ethical  status. 

— The  opposition  of  the  Gymnasia  to  the  demands  of  the 
agricultural  communities  is  a  very  interesting  phase  of  edu- 
cational history.  They  were  asked  to  widen  their  course  so 
as  to  embrace  Mathematics,  Physics,  Natural  History,  Geog- 
raphy, and  the  modern  languages.  At  first  they  stoutly  re- 
sisted; then  they  made  some  concessions;  finally,  the  more 
they  made  the  more  they  found  themselves  in  contradiction 


72  The  Modality  of  the  Process  of  Teaching. 

with  their  true  work,  and  so  they  produced  as  an  independ- 
ent correlate  the  Realschule.  After  this  was  founded,  the 
gymnasium  returned  to  its  old  plan,  and  is  now  again  able 
to  place  in  the  foreground  the  pursuit  of  classical  literature 
and  history.  It  was  thus  set  free  from  demands  made  upon 
it  which  were  entirely  foreign  to  its  nature. — The  examina- 
tion is,  on  one  side,  so  adapted  to  the  pupil  as  to  make  him 
conscious  of  his  own  condition.  As  to  its  external  side,  it* 
determines  whether  the  pupil  shall  pass  from  one  class  to 
another  or  from  one  school  to  another,  or  it  decides  whether 
the  school  as  a  whole  shall  give  a  public  exhibition — an  ex- 
hibition which  ought  to  have  no  trace  of  ostentation,  but 
which  in  fact  is  often  tinctured  with  pedagogical  char- 
latanism. 

§  133.  The  Direction  of  the  school  on  the  side  of  science  must 
be  held  by  the  school  itself,  for  the  process  of  the  intellect  in 
acquiring  science,  the  progress  of  the  method,  the  determina- 
tions of  the  subject-matter  and  the  order  of  its  development, 
have  their  own  laws,  to  which  Instruction  must  submit  itself 
if  it  would  attain  its  end.  The  school  is  only  one  part  of  the 
whole  of  culture.  In  itself  it  divides  into  manifold  depart- 
ments, together  constituting  a  great  organism  which  in  mani- 
fold ways  comes  into  contact  with  the  organism  of  the  state. 
So  long  as  teaching  is  of  a  private  character,  so  long  as  it  is 
the  reciprocal  relation  of  one  individual  to  another,  or  so  long 
as  it  is  shut  up  within  the  circle  of  the  family  and  belongs 
to  it  alone,  so  long  it  has  no  objective  character.  It  receives 
this  first  when  it  grows  to'  a  school.  As  in  history,  its  first 
form  must  have  a  religious  character;  but  this  first  form,  in 
time,  disappears.  Religion  is  the  absolute  relation  of  man 
to  God  which  subsumes  all  other  relations.  In  so  far  as  Reli- 
gion exists  in  the  form  of  a  church,  those  who  are  members 
of  the  same  church  may  have  instruction  given  on  the  na- 
ture of  religion  among  themselves.  Instruction  on  the  subject 
is  proper,  and  it  is  even  enjoined  upon  them  as  a  law — as  a 
duty.  But  further  than  their  own  society  they  may  not  ex- 
tend their  rule.  The  church  may  exert  itself  to  make  a  reli- 
gious spirit  felt  in  the  school  and  to  make  it  penetrate  all 
the  teaching ;  but  it  may  not  presume,  because  it  has  for  its 
subject  the  absolute  interest  of  men,  the  interest  which  is 


The  Modality  of  the  Process  of  Teaching.  73 

superior  to  all  others,  to  determine  also  the  other  objects  of 
Education  or  the  method  of  treating  them.  The  technical  ac- 
quisitions of  Reading,  Writing  and  Arithmetic,  Drawing  and 
Music,  the  Natural  Sciences,  Mathematics,  Logic,  Anthro- 
pology and  Psychology,  the  practical  sciences  pf  finance  and 
the  municipal  regulations,  have  no  direct  relation  to  religion. 
If  we  attempt  to  establish  one,  there  inevitably  appears  in 
them  a  morbid  state  which  destroys  them  ;  not  only  so,  but 
piety  itself  disappears,  for  these  accomplishments  and  this 
knowledge  are  not  included  in  its  idea. 

—Such  treatment  of  Art  and  Science  may  be  well-meant, 
but  it  is  always  an  error.  It  may  even  make  a  ludicrous  im- 
pression, which  is  a  very  dangerous  thing  for  the  authority 
of  religion.  If  a  church  has  established  schools,  it  must  see 
to  it  that  all  which  is  there  taught  outside  of  the  religious 
instruction,  i.e.  all  of  science  and  art,  shall  have  no  direct 
connection  with  it  as  a  religious  institution. — 

§  134.  The  Church,  as  the  external  manifestation  of  reli- 
gion, is  concerned  with  the  absolute  relation  of  man,  the  rela- 
tion to  God,  special  in  itself  as  opposed  to  his  other  relations ; 
the  State,  on  the  contrary,  seizes  the  life  of  a  nation  accord- 
ing to  its  explicit  totality.  The  State  should  conduct  the  edu- 
cation of  all  its  citizens.  To  it,  then,  the  church  can  appear 
only  as  a  school,  for  the  church  instructs  its  own  people  con- 
cerning the  nature  of  religion,  partly  by  teaching  proper,  that 
of  the  catechism,  partly  in  quite  as  edifying  a  way,  by  preach- 
ing. From  this  point  of  view,  the  State  can  look  upon  the 
church  only  as  one  of  those  schools  which  prepare  for  a 
special  avocation.  The  church  appears  to  the  State  as  that 
school  which  assumes  the  task  of  educating  the  religious  ele- 
ment. Just  as  little  as  the  church  should  the  state  attempt 
to  exercise  any  influence  over  Science  and  Art.  In  this  they 
are  exactly  alike,  and  must  acknowledge  the  necessity  which 
both  Science  and  Art  contain  within  themselves  and  by  which 
they  determine  themselves.  The  laws  of  Logic,  Mathematics, 
Astronomy,  Morals,  ^Esthetics,  Physiology,  &c.,  are  entirely 
independent  of  the  state.  It  can  decree  neither  discoveries 
nor  inventions.  The  state  in  its  relations  to  science  occupies 
the  same  ground  as  it  should  do  with  relation  to  the  freedom 
of  self-consciousness.  It  is  true  that  the  church  teaches  man, 


74  The  Modality  of  the  Process  of  Teaching. 

but  it  demands  from  him  at  the  same  time  belief  in  the  truth 
of  its  dogmas.  It  rests,  as  the  real  church,  on  presupposed 
authority,  and  sinks  finally  all  contradictions  which  may  be 
found  in  the  absolute  mystery  of  the  existence  of  God.  The 
state,  on  the  contrary,  elaborates  its  idea  into  the  form  of 
laws,  i.e.  into  general  determinations,  of  whose  necessity  it 
convinces  itself.  It  seeks  to  give  to  these  laws  the  clearest  pos- 
sible form,  so  that  every  one  may  understand  them.  It  con- 
cedes validity  only  to  that  which  can  be  proved,  and  sentences 
the  individual  according  to  the  external  side  of  the  deed  (overt 
act)  not,  as  the  church  does,  on  its  internal  side — that  of  in- 
tention. Finally,  it  demands  in  him  consciousness  of  his 
deed,  because  it  makes  each  one  responsible  for  his  own  deed. 
It  has,  therefore,  the  same  principle  with  science,  for  the  proof 
of  necessity  and  the  unity  of  consciousness  with  its  object 
constitute  the  essence  of  science.  Since  the  state  embraces 
the  school  as  one  of  its  educational  organisms,  it  is  from  its 
very  nature  especially  called  upon  to  guide  its  regulation  in 
accordance  with  the  manifestation  of  consciousness. 

— The  church  calls  this  "profanation."  One  might  say 
that  the  church,  with  its  mystery  of  Faith,  always  represents 
the  absolute  problem  of  science,  while  the  state,  as  to  its  form, 
coincides  with  science.  Whenever  the  state  abandons  the 
strictness  of  proof — when  it  begins  to  measure  the  individual 
citizen  by  his  intention  and  not  by  his  deed,  and,  in  place  of 
the  clear  insight  of  the  comprehending  consciousness,  sets  up 
the  psychological  compulsion  of  a  hollow  mechanical  autho- 
rity, it  destroys  itself. — 

§  135.  Neither  the  church  nor  the  state  should  attempt  to 
control  the  school  in  its  internal  management.  Still  less  can 
the  school  constitute  itself  into  a  state  within  the  state ;  for, 
while  it  is  only  one  of  the  means  which  are  necessary  for  de- 
veloping citizens,  the  state  and  the  church  lay  claim  to  the 
whole  man  his  whole  life  long.  The  independence  of  the 
school  can  then  only  consist  in  this,  that  it  raises  within  the 
state  an  organ  which  works  under  its  control,  and  which  as 
school  authority  endeavors  within  itself  to  befriend  the  needs 
of  the  school,  while  externally  it  acts  on  the  church  and  state 
indirectly  by  means  of  ethical  powers.  The  emancipation  of 
the  school  can  never  reasonably  mean  its  abstract  isolation, 


The  Modality  of  the  Process  of  Teaching.  75 

or  the  absorption  of  the  ecclesiastical  and  political  life  into 
the  school ;  it  can  signify  only  the  free  reciprocal  action  of 
the  school  with  state  and  church.  It  must  never  be  forgotten 
that  what  makes  the  school  a  school  is  not  the  total  process 
of  education,  for  this  falls  also  within  the  family,  the  state, 
and  the  church ;  but  that  the  proper  work  of  the  school  is 
the  process  of  instruction,  knowledge,  and  the  acquirement, 
by  practice,  of  skill. 

— The  confusion  of  the  idea  of  Instruction  with  that  of 
Education  in  general  is  a  common  defect  in  superficial  trea- 
tises on  these  themes.  The  Radicals  among  those  who  are  in 
favor  of  so-called  "  Emancipation,"  often  erroneously  appeal 
to  "free  Greece"  which  generally  for  this  fond  ignorance  is 
made  to  stand  as  authority  for  a  thousand  things  of  which  it 
never  dreamed.  In  this  fictitious  Hellas  of  u  free,  beautiful 
humanity,"  they  say  the  limits  against  which  we  strive  to-day 
did  not  exist.  The  histories  of  Anaxagoras,  Protagoras,  Di- 
agoras,  Socrates,  Aristotle,  Theophrastus,  and  of  others,  who 
were  all  condemned  on  account  of  their  "impiety,"  tell  quite 
another  story. — 

§  136.  The  inspection  of  the  school  may  be  carried  out  in 
different  ways,  but  it  must  be  required  that  its  special  insti- 
tutions shall  be  embraced  and  cared  for  as  organized  and 
related  wholes,  framed  in  accordance  with  the  idea  of  the 
state,  and  that  one  division  of  the  ministry  shall  occupy  itself 
exclusively  with  it.  The  division  of  labor  will  specially  affect 
the  schools  for  teaching  particular  avocations.  The  prescrip- 
tion of  the  subjects  to  be  studied  in  each  school  as  appropri- 
ate to  it,  of  the  course  of  study,  and  of  the  object  thereof, 
properly  falls  to  this  department  of  government,  is  its  imme- 
diate work,  and  its  theory  must  be  changed  according  to  the 
progress  and  needs  of  the  time.  Niemeyer,  Sctiwarz,  and 
others,  have  made  out  such  plans  for  schools.  Scheinert 
has  fully  painted  the  Volkschule,  Mager  the  Burgerschule, 
Deinhard  and  Kapp  the  Gymnasium.  But  such  delineations, 
however  correct  they  may^  be,  depend  upon  the  actual  sum  of 
culture  of  a  people  and  a  time,  and  must  therefore  continually 
modify  their  fundamental  Ideal.  The  same  is  true  of  the  meth- 
ods of  instruction  in  the  special  arts  and  sciences.  Niemeyer, 
Schwarz,  Herbart,  in  their  sketches  of  Pedagogics,  Beneke  in 


76  Education  of  the  Will. 

his  Doctrine  of  Education,  and  others,  have  set  forth  in  de- 
tail the  method  of  teaching  Reading,  Writing  and  Arithmetic, 
Languages,  Natural  Science,  Geography,  History,  &c.  Such 
directions  are,  however,  ephemeral  in  value,  and  only  rela- 
tively useful,  and  must,  in  order  to  be  truly  practical,  be  al- 
ways newly  laid  out  in  accordance  with  universal  educational 
principles,  and  with  the  progress  of  science  and  art. 

— The  idea  that  the  State  has  the  right  to  oversee  the  school 
lies  in  the  very  idea  of  the  State,  which  is  authorized,  and 
under  obligation,  to  secure  the  education  of  its  citizens,  and 
cannot  leave  their  fashioning  to  chance.  The  emancipation 
of  the  school  from  the  State,  the  abstracting  of  it,  would  lead 
to  the  destruction  of  the  school.  There  is  no  difficulty  in  Pro- 
testant States  in  the  free  inter-action  of  school  and  church, 
for  Protestantism  has  consciously  accepted  as  its  peculiar 
principle  individual  freedom  as  Christianity  has  presented  it. 
For  Catholic  States,  however,  a  difficulty  exists.  The  Pro- 
testant clergyman  can  with  propriety  oversee  the  Volksclmle, 
for  here  he  works  as  teacher,  not  as  priest.  In  the  Protestant 
churck  there  are  really  no  Laity  according  to  the  original 
meaning  of  the  term.  On  the  contrary,  Catholic  clergymen 
are  essentially  priests,  and  as  such,  on  account  of  the  uncon- 
ditional obedience  which,  according  to  their  church,  they  have 
to  demand,  they  usurp  the  authority  of  the  State.  From  this 
circumstance  arise,  at  present,  numberless  collisions  in  the 
department  of  school  supervision. — 

THIRD  DIVISION. 
PRAGMATICS  (EDUCATION  OF  THE  WIIX). 

§  137.  Both  Physical  and  Intellectual  Education  are  in  the 
highest  degree  practical.  The  first  reduces  the  merely  natural 
to  a  tool  which  mind  shall  use  for  its  own  ends ;  the  second 
guides  the  intelligence,  by  ways  conformable  to  its  nature, 
to  the  necessary  method  of  the  act  of  teaching  and  learning, 
which  finally  branches  out  into  an  objective  national  life, 
into  a  system  of  mutually  dependent  school  organizations. 
But  in  a  narrower  sense  we  mean  by  practical  education  the 
methodical  development  of  the  Will.  This  phrase  more  clear- 
ly expresses  the  topic  to  be  considered  in  this  division  than 
others  sometimes  used  in  Pedagogics  \Bestrebungs  vermogen, 


Social  Culture.  77 

conative  power].  The  will  is  already  the  subject  of  a  science 
of  its  own,  i.e.  of  Ethics ;  and  if  Pedagogics  would  proceed  in 
anywise  scientifically,  it  must  recognize  and  presuppose  the 
idea  and  the  existence  of  this  science.  It  should  not  restate  in 
full  the  doctrines  of  freedom  of  duty,  of  virtue,  and  of  con- 
science, although  we  have  often  seen  this  done  in  empirical 
works  on  Pedagogics.  Pedagogics  has  to  deal  with  the  idea 
of  freedom  and  morality  only  so  far  as  it  fixes  the  technique 
of  their  process,  and  at  the  same  time  it  confesses  itself  to 
be  weakest  just  here,  where  nothing  is  of  any  worth  without 
a  pure  self-determination. 

§  138.  The  -pupil  must  (1)  become  civilized ;  i.e.  he  must 
learn  to  govern,  as  a  thing  external  to  him,  his  natural 
egotism,  and  to  make  the  forms  which  civilized  society  has 
adopted  his  own.  (2)  He  must  become  imbiied  with  morali- 
ty; i.e.  he  must  learn  to  determine  his  actions,  not  only  with 
reference  to  what  is  agreeable  and  useful,  but  according  to 
the  principle  of  the  Good;  he  must  become  virtually  free, 
form  a  character,  and  must  habitually  look  upon  the  ne- 
cessity of  freedom  as  the  absolute  measure  of  his  actions. 
(3)  He  must  become  religious;  i.e.  he  must  discern  that  the 
world,  with  all  its  changes,  himself  included,  is  only  pheno- 
menal; the  affirmative  side  of  this  insight  into  the  emptiness 
of  the  finite  and  transitory,  which  man  would  so  willingly 
make  everlasting,  is  the  consciousness  of  the  absolute  exist- 
ing in  and  for  itself,  which,  in  its  certainty  of  its  truth,  not 
torn  asunder  through  the  process  of  manifestation,  constitutes 
no  part  of  its  changes,  but,  while  it  actually  presents  them, 
permeates  them  all,  and  freely  distinguishes  itself  from  them. 
/'In  so  far  as  man  relates  himself  to  God,  he  cancels  all  finitude 
and  transitoriness,  and  by  this  feeling  frees  himself  from  the 
externality  of  phenomena.J/Virtue  on  the  side  of  civilization 
is  Politeness  ;  on  that  of  morality,  Conscientiousness ;  and 
on  that  of  religion,  Humility. 

FIRST      CHAPTER. 

Social  Culture. 

§  139.  The  social  development  of  man  makes  the  beginning 
of  practical  education.  It  is  not  necessary  to  suppose  M  spe- 
cial social  instinct.  The  inclination  of  man  to  the  society  of 


78  Social  Culture. 

men  does  not  arise  only  from  the  identity  of  their  nature,  but 
is  also  in  certain  cases  affected  by  particular  relations.  The 
natural  starting-point  of  social  culture  is  the  Family.  But 
this,  educates  the  child  for  Society,  and  by  means  of  Society 
the  individual  passes  over  into  relations  with  the  world  at 
large.  Natural  sympathy  changes  to  polite  behavior,  and 
this  to  the  dexterous  and  circumspect  deportment,  whose 
truth  nevertheless  is  first  the  ethical  purity  which  combines 
with  the  wisdom  of  the  serpent  the  harmlessness  of  the  dove. 

§  140.  (1)  The  Family  is  the  natural  social  circle  to  which 
mall  primarily  belongs.  In  it  all  the  immediate  differences 
which  exist  are  compensated  by  the  equally  immediate  unity 
of  the  relationship.  The  subordination  of  the  wife  to  the 
husband,  of  the  children  to  their  parents,  of  the  younger  chil- 
dren to  their  elder  brothers  and  sisters,  ceases  to  be  subor- 
dination, through  the  intimacy  of  love.  The  child  learns 
obedience  to  authority,  and  in  this  it  gives  free  personal 
satisfaction  to  its  parents  and  enjoys  the  same.  All  the  rela- 
tions in  which  he  finds  himself  there  are  penetrated  by  the 
warmth  of  implicit  confidence,  which  can  be  replaced  for  the 
child  by  nothing  else.  In  this  sacred  circle  the  tenderest 
emotions  of  the  heart  are  developed  by  the  personal  interest 
of  all  its  members  in  what  happens  to  any  one,  and  thus  the 
foundation  is  laid  of  a  susceptibility  to  all  genuine  or  real 
friendship. 

— Nothing  more  unreasonable  or  inhuman  could  exist  than 
those  modern  theories  which  would  destroy  the  family  and 
would  leave  the  children,  the  offspring  of  the  anarchy  of  free- 
love,  to  grow  up  in  public  nurseries.  This  would  appear  to 
be  very  humanitarian ;  indeed  these  socialists  talk  of  noth- 
ing but  the  interests  of  humanity — they  are  never  weary  of 
uttering  their  insipid  jests  on  the  institution  of  the  family, 
as  if  it  were  the  principle  of  all  narrow-mindedness.  Have 
these  fanatics,  who  are  seeking  afte.r  an  abstraction  of  hu- 
manity, ever  examined  our  foundling-hospitals,  orphan  asy- 
lums, barracks,  and  prisons,  to  discover  in  some  degree  to 
what  an  atomic  state  of  barren  cleverness  a  human  being 
grows  who  has  never  formed  a  part  of  a  family  ?  The  Family 
is  only  one  phase  in  the  grand  order  of  the  ethical  organiza- 
tion ;  but  it  is  the  substantial  phase  from  which  man  passively 


Social  Culture.  79 

proceeds,  but  into  which,  as  he  founds  a  family  of  his  own, 
he  actively  returns.  The  child  lives  in  the  Family  in  the 
common  joy  and  grief  of  sympathy  for  all,  and,  in  the  emo- 
tion with  which  he  sees  his  parents  approach  death  while  he 
is  hastening  towards  the  full  enjoyment  of  existence,  expe- 
riences the  finer  feelings  which  are  so  powerful  in  creating  in 
him  a  deeper  and  more  tender  understanding  of  everything 
human. — 

§  141.  (2)  The  Family  rears  the  children  not  for  itself  but 
for  the  civil  society.  In  this  we  have  a  system  of  morals  pro- 
ducing externally  a  social  technique,  a  circle  of  fixed  forms 
of  society.  This  technique  endeavors  to  subdue  the  natural 
roughness  of  man,  at  least  as  far  as  it  manifests  itself  exter- 
nally. Because  he  is  spirit,  man  is  not  to  yield  himself  to 
his  immediateness ;  he  is  to  exhibit  to  man  his  naturalness 
as  under  the  control  of  spirit.  The  etiquette  of  propriety  on 
the  one  hand  facilitates  the  manifestation  of  individuality 
by  means  of  which  the  individual  becomes  interesting  to  oth- 
ers, and  on  the  other  hand,  since  its  forms  are  alike  for  all,  it 
makes  us  recognize  the  likeness  of  the  individual  to  all  oth- 
ers and  so  makes  their  intercourse  easier. 

— The  conventional  form  is  no  mere  constraint ;  but  essen- 
tially a  protection  not  only  for  the  freedom  of  the  individual, 
but  much  more  the  protection  of  the  individual  against  the 
rude  impetuosity  of  his  own  naturalness.  Savages  and  peas- 
ants for  this  reason  are,  in  their  relations  to  each  other,  by 
no  means  as  unconstrained  as  one  often  represents  them,  but 
hold  closely  to  a  ceremonious  behavior.  There  is  in  one  of 
Immerman's  stories,  "The  Village  Justice,"  a  very  excellent 
picture  of  the  conventional  forms  with  which  the  peasant 
loves  to  surround  himself.  The  scene  in  which  the  towns- 
man who  thinks  that  he  can  dispense  with  forms  among  the 
peasants  is  very  entertainingly  taught  better,  is  exceedingly 
valuable  in  an  educational  point  of  view.  The  feeling  of 
shame  which  man  has  in  regard  to  his  mere  naturalness  is 
often  extended  to  relations  where  it  has  no  direct  significance, 
since  this  sense  of  shame  is  appealed  to  in  children  in  refer- 
ence to  things  which  are  really  perfectly  indifferent  exter- 
nalities.— 

§  142.    Education  with  regard  to  social  culture  has  two 


80  Social  Culture. 

extremes  to  avoid :  the  youth  may,  in  his  effort  to  prove  his 
individuality,  become  vain  and  conceited,  and  fall  into  an 
attempt  to  appear  interesting ;  or  he  may  become  slavishly 
dependent  on  conventional  forms,  a  kind  of  social  pedant. 
This  state  of  nullity  which  contents  itself  with  the  mechani- 
cal polish,  of  social  formalism  is  ethically  more  dangerous 
than  the  tendency  to  a  marked  individuality,  for  it  betrays 
emptiness ;  while  the  effort  towards  a  peculiar  differentiation 
from  others,  to  become  interesting  to  others,  indicates  power. 

§  143.  When  we  have  a  harmony  of  the  manifestation  of 
the  individual  with  the  expression  of  the  recognition  of  the 
equality  of  others  we  have  what  is  called  deportment  or  po- 
liteness, which  combines  dignity  and  grace,  self-respect  and 
modesty.  We  call  it  when  fully  complete,  Urbanity.  It  treats 
the  conventional  forms  with  irony,  since,  at  the  same  time 
that  it  yields  to  them,  it  allows  the  productivity  of  spirit  to 
shine  through  them  in  little  deviation  from  them,  as  if  it  were 
fully  able  to  make  others  in  their  place. 

-True  politeness  shows  that  it  remains  master  of  forms. 
It  is  very  necessary  to  accustom  children  to  courtesy  and  to 
bring  them  up  in  the  etiquette  of  the  prevailing  social  cus- 
tom ;  but  they  must  be  prevented  from  falling  into  an  absurd 
formality  which  makes  the  triumph  of  a  polite  behavior  to 
consist  in  a  blind  following  of  the  dictates  of  the  last  fashion- 
journal,  and  in  the  exact  copying  of  the  phraseology  and 
directions  of  some  book  on  manners.  One  can  best  teach  and 
practise  politeness  when  he  does  not  merely  copy  the  social 
technique,  but  comprehends  its  original  idea. 

§  144.  (3)  But  to  fully  initiate  the  youth  into  the  institu- 
tions of  civilization  one  must  not  only  call  out  the  feelings  of 
his  heart  in  the  bosom  of  the  family,  not  only  give  to  him  the 
formal  refinement  necessary  to  his  intercourse  with  society ; 
it  must  also  perform  to  him  the  painful  duty  of  making  him 
acquainted  with  the  mysteries  of  the  ways  of  the  world.  This 
is  a  painful  duty,  for  the  child  naturally  feels  an  unlimited 
confidence  in  all  men.  This  confidence  must  not  be  destroy- 
ed, but  it  must  be  tempered.  The  mystery  of  the  way  of  the 
world  is  the  deceit  which  springs  from  selfishness.  We  must 
provide  against  it  by  a  proper  degree  of  distrust.  We  must 
teach  the  youth  that  he  may  be  imposed  upon  by  deceit,  dis- 


Moral  Culture.  81 

simulation,  and  hypocrisy,  and  that  therefore  he  must  not 
give  his  confidence  lightly  and  credulously.  He  himself  must 
learn  how  he  can,  without  deceit,  gain  his  own  ends  in  the 
midst  of  the  throng  of  opposing  interests. 

— Kant  in  his  Pedagogics  calls  that  worldly-wise  behavior 
by  which  the  individual  is  to  demean  himself  in  opposition 
to  others,  Impenetrability.  By  its  means  man  learns  how  to 
"manage  men."  In  Lord  Chesterfield's  letters  to  his  son,  we 
have  pointed  out  the  true  value  of  egotism  in  its  relation  to 
morals.  All  his  words  amount  to  this,  that  we  are  to  con- 
sider every  man  to  be  an  egotist,  and  to  convert  his  very 
egotism  into  a  means  of  finding  out  his  weak  side;  i.e.  to 
flatter  him  by  exciting  his  vanity,  and  by  means  of  such  flat- 
tery to  ascertain  his  limits.  In  common  life,  the  expression 
"having  had  experiences"  means  about  the  same  thing  as 
having  been  deceived  and  betrayed. — 

SECOND     CHAPTKR. 

Moral  Culture. 

§  145.  The  truth  of  social  culture  lies  in  moral  culture. 
Without  this  latter,  every  art  of  behavior  remains  worthless, 
and  can  never  attain  the  clearness  of  Humility  and  Dignity 
which  are  possible  to  it  in  its  unity  with  morality.  For  the 
better  determination  of  this  idea  Pedagogics  must  refer  to 
Ethics  itself,  and  can  here  give  the  part  of  its  content  which 
relates  to  Education  only  in  the  form  of  educational  maxims. 
The  principal  categories  of  Ethics  in  the  domain  of  morality 
are  the  ideas  of  Duty,  Virtue,  and  Conscience.  Education 
must  lay  stress  on  the  truth  that  nothing  in  the  world  has 
any  absolute  value  except  will  guided  by  the  right. 

§  146.  Thence  follows  (1)  the  maxim  relating  to  the  idea 
of  Duty,  that  we  must  accustom  the  pupil  to  unconditional 
obedience  to  it,  so  that  he  shall  perform  it  for  no  other  rea- 
son than  that  it  is  duty.  It  is  true  that  the  performance  of  a 
duty  may  bring  with  it  externally  a  result  agreeable  or  dis- 
agreeable, useful  or  harmful ;  but  the  consideration  of  such 
connection  ought  never  to  determine  us.  This  moral  demand, 
though  it  may  appear  to  be  excessive  severity,  is  the  abso- 
lute foundation  of  all  genuine  ethical  practice.  All  "highest 

7 


82  Moral  Culture. 

happiness  theories,"  however  finely  spun  they  may  be,  when 
taken  as  a  guide  for  life,  lead  at  last  to  Sophistry,  and  this 
to  contradictions  which  ruin  the  life. 

§  147.  (2)  Virtue  must  make  actual  what  duty  commands, 
•or,  rather,  the  actualizing  of  duty  is  Virtue.  And  here  we 
must  say  next,  then,  that  the  principal  things  to  be  consid- 
ered under  Virtue  are  (a)  the  dialectic  of  particular  virtues, 
•{b)  renunciation,  and  (c)  character. 

§  148.  (a)  From  the  dialectic  of  particular  virtues  there 
follows  the  educational  maxim  that  we  must  practise  all 
virtues  with  equal  faithfulness,  for  all  together  constitute  an 
ethical  system  complete  in  itself,  in  which  no  one  is  indiffer- 
ent to  another. 

— Morality  should  recognize  no  distinction  of  superiority 
among  the  different  virtues.  They  reciprocally  determine 
each  other.  There  is  no  such  thing  as  one  virtue  which  shines 
out  above  the  others,  and  still  less  should  we  have  any  spe- 
cial gift  for  virtue.  ^The  pupil  must  be  taught  to  recognize 
no  great  and  no  small  in  the  virtues,  for  that  one  which  may 
at  first  sight  seem  small  is  inseparably  connected  with  that 
which  is  seemingly  the  greatest.  Many  virtues  are  attractive 
by  reason  of  their  external  consequences,  as  e.g.  industry  be- 
cause of  success  in  business,  worthy  conduct  because  of  the 
respect  paid  to  it,  charity  because  of  the  "pleasure  attending 
it ;  but  man  should  not  practise  these  virtues  because  he  en- 
joys them:  he  must  devote  the  same  amount  of  self-sacrifice 
and  of  assiduity  to  those  virtues  which  (as  Christ  said)  are 
to  be  performed  in  secret. 

— It  is  especially  valuable,  in  an  educational  respect,  to 
gain  an  insight,  into  the  transition  of  which  each  virtue  is 
empirically  capable,  into  a  negative  as  well  as  into  a  positive 
extreme.  The  differences  between  the  extremes  and  the 
golden  mean  are  differences  in  quality,  although  they  ar- 
rive at  this  difference  in  quality  by  means  of  difference 
in  quantity.  Kant  has,  as  is  well  known,  attacked  the 
Aristotelian  doctrine  of  the  ethical  /^eo-orsc,  since  he  was  con- 
sidering the  qualitative  difference  of  the  mind  as  differen- 
tiating principle ;  this  was  correct  for  the  subject  with  which 
he  dealt,  but  in  the  objective  development  we  do  arrive  on 


Moral  Culture.  83 

the  other  hand  at  the  determination  of  a  quantitative  limit ; 
e.g.  a  man,  with  the  most  earnest  intention  of  doing  right, 
may  be  in  doubt  whether  he  has  not,  in  any  task,  done  more 
or  less  than  was  fitting  for  him. 

— As  no  virtue  can  cease  its  demands  for  us,  no  one  can 
permit  any  exceptions  or  any  provisional  circumstances  to 
come  in  the  way  of  his  duties.  Our  moral  culture  will  always 
certainly  manifest  itself  in  very  unequal  phases  if  we,  out  of 
narrowness  and  weakness,  neglect  entirely  one  virtue  while 
we  diligently  cultivate  another.  If  we  are  forced  into  such  un- 
equal action,  we  are  not  responsible  for  the  result ;  but  it  is 
dangerous  and  deserves  punishment  if  we  voluntarily  encour- 
age it.  The  pupil  must  be  warned  against  a  certain  moral 
negligence  which  consists  in  yielding  to  certain  weaknesses, 
faults,  or  ci  imes,  a  little  longer  and  a  little  longer,  because  he 
has  fixed  u  certain  time  after  which  he  intends  to  do  better. 
Up  to  that  time  he  allows  himself  to  be  a  loiterer  in  ethics, 
Perhaps  he  will  assert  that  his  companions,  his  surroundings, 
his  position,  &c.,  must  be  changed  before  he  can  alter  his  in- 
ternal conduct.  Wherever  education  or  temperament  favors 
sentimentality,  we  shall  find  birth-days,  new-year's  day,  con- 
firmation day,  &c.,  selected  as  these  turning  points.  It  is  not 
to  be  denied  that  man  proceeds  in  his  internal  life  from  epoch 
to  epoch,  and  renews  himself  in  his  most  internal  nature,  nor 
can  we  deny  that  moments  like  those  mentioned  are  espe- 
cially favorable  in  man  to  an  effort  towards  self-transforma- 
tion because  they  invite  introspection ;  but  it  is  not  to  be 
endured  that  the  youth,  while  looking  forward  to  such  a  mo- 
ment, should  consciously  persist  in  his  evil-doing.  If  he  does, 
we  shall  have  as  consequences  that  when  the  solemn  moment 
which  he  has  set  at  last  arrives,  at  the  stirring  of  the  first 
emotion  he  perceives  with  terror  that  he  has  changed  nothing 
in  himself,  that  the  same  temptations  are  present  to  him,  the 
same  weakness  takes  possession  of  him,  &c.  In  our"business, 
in  our  theoretical  endeavors,  &c.,  it  may  certainly  happen 
that,  on  account  of  want  of  time,  or  means,  or  humor,  we  may 
put  off  some  work  to  another  time ;  but  morality  stands  on 
a  higher  plane  than  these,  because  it,  as  the  concrete  abso- 
luteness of  the  will,  makes  unceasing  demand  on  the  whole 
and  undivided  man.  In  morality  there  are  no  vacations,  no 


84  Moral  Culture. 

interims.  As  we  in  ascending  a  flight  of  stairs  take  good  care 
not  to  make  a  single  mis-step,  and  give  our  conscious  atten- 
tion to  every  step,  so  we  must  not  allow  any  exceptions  in 
moral  atfairs,  must  not  appoint  given  times  for  better  con- 
duct, but  must  await  these  last  as  natural  crises,  and  must 
seek  to  live  in  time  as  in  Eternity. — 

§  149,  (6)  From  Renunciation  springs  the  injunction  of 
self-government.  The  action  of  education  on  the  will  to  form 
habits  in  it,  is  discipline  or  training  in  a  narrower  sense. 
Renunciation  teaches  us  to  know  the  relation  in  which  we 
in  fact,  as  historical  persons,  stand  to  the  idea  of  the  Good. 
From  our  empirical  knowledge  of  ourselves  we  derive  the 
idea  of  our  limits  ;  from  the  absolute  knowledge  of  ourselves 
on  the  other  hand,  which  presents  to  us  the  nature  of  Freedom 
as  our  own  actuality,  we  derive  the  conception  of  the  resistless 
might  of  the  genuine  will  for  the  good.  But  to  actualize  this 
conception  we  must  have  practice.  This  practice  is  the  proper 
renunciation.  Every  man  must  devise  for  himself  some  spe- 
cial set  of  rules,  which  shall  be  determined  by  his  peculiari- 
ties and  his  resulting  temptations.  These  rules  must  have 
as  their  innermost  essence  the  subduing  of  self,  the  vanquish- 
ing of  his  negative  arbitrariness  by  means  of  the  universality 
and  necessity  of  the  will. 

— In  order  to  make  this  easy,  the  youth  may  be  practised 
in  renouncing  for  himself  even  the  arbitrariness  which  is 
permitted  to  him.  One  often  speaks  of  renunciation  as  if  it 
belonged  especially  to  the  middle  ages  and  to  Catholicism  \ 
but  this  is  an  error.  Renunciation  in  its  one-sided  form  as 
relying  on  works,  and  for  the  purpose  of  mortification,  is 
asceticism,  and  belongs  to  them ;  but  Renunciation  in  gen- 
eral is  a  necessary  determination  of  morals.  The  keeping 
of  a  journal  is  said  to  assist  in  the  practice  of  virtue,  but  its 
value  depends  on  how  it  is  kept.  To  one  it  may  be  a  curse, 
to  another  a  blessing.  Fichte,  Gothe,  Byron,  and  others,  have 
kept  journals  and  have  been  assisted  thereby;  while  others, 
as  Lavater,  have  been  thwarted  by  them.  Vain  people  will 
every  evening  record  with  pen  and  ink  their  admiration  of 
the  correct  course  of  life  which  they  have  led  in  the  day  de- 
voted to  their  pleasure. — 

§  150.    (c)  The  result  of  the  practice  in  virtue,  or,  as  it  is 


Moral  Culture.  85 

commonly  expressed,  of  the  individual  actualization  of  free- 
dom, is  the  methodical  determinateness  of  the  individual  will 
as  Character.  This  conception  of  character  is  formal,  for  it 
contains  only  the  identity  which  is  implied  in  the  ruling  of  a 
will  on  its  external  side  as  constant.  As  there  are  good,  strong 
and  beautiful  characters,  so  there  are  also  bad,  weak,  and 
detestable  ones.  When  in  Pedagogics,  therefore,  we  speak 
so  much  of  the  building  up  of  a  character,  we  mean  the  mak- 
ing permanent  of  a  direction  of  the  individual  will  towards 
the  actualization  of  the  Good.  Freedom  ought  to  be  the  cha- 
racter of  character.  Education  must  therefore  observe  closely 
the  inter-action  of  the  factors  which  go  to  form  character,  viz., 
(a)  the  temperament,  as  the  natural  character  of  the  man ; 
(/9)  external  events,  the  historical  element;  (?-)  the  energy 
of  the  Will,  by  which,  in  its  limits  of  nature  and  history,  it 
realizes  the  idea  of  the  Good  in  and  for  itself  as  the  proper 
ethical  character.  Temperament  determines  the  Rhythm  of 
our  external  manifestation  of  ourselves ;  the  events  in  which 
we  live  assign  to  us  the  ethical  problem,  but  the  Will  in  its 
sovereignty  stamps  its  seal  on  the  form  given  by  these  po- 
tentialities. Pedagogics  aims  at  accustoming  the  youth  to 
freedom,  so  that  he  shall  always  measure  his  deed  by  the 
idea  of  the  Good.  It  does  not  desire  a  formal  independence, 
which  may  also  be  called  character,  but  a  real  independence 
resting  upon  the  conception  of  freedom  as  that  which  is  ab- 
solutely necessary.  The  pedagogical  maxim  is  then :  Be 
independent,  but  be  so  through  doing  Good. 

—According  to  preconceived  opinion,  stubbornness  and 
obstinacy  claim  that  they  are  the  foundation  of  character. 
But  they  may  spring  from  weakness  and  indeterminate- 
ness,  on  which  account  one  needs  to  be  well  on  his  guard. 
A  gentle  disposition,  through  enthusiasm  for  the  Good,  may 
attain  to  quite  as  great  a  firmness  of  will.  Coarseness  and 
meanness  are  on  no  account  to  be  tolerated. — 

§  151.  (3)  We  pass  from  the  consideration  of  the  culture  of 
character  to  that  of  conscience.  This  is  the  relation  which 
the  moral  agent  makes  between  himself  as  manifestation  and 
himself  as  idea.  It  compares  itself,  in  its  past  or  future,  with 
its  nature,  and  j  udges  itself  accordingly  as  good  or  bad.  This 
independence  of  the  ethical  judgment  is  the  soul  proper  of 


86  Religious  Culture. 

all  morality,  the  negation  of  all  self-deception  and  of  all 
deception  through  another.  The  pedagogical  maxim  is :  Be 
conscientious.  Be  in  the  last  instance  dependent  only 
upon  the  conception  which  thou  thyself  hast  of  the  idea  of 
the  Good ! 

— The  self-criticism  prompted  by  conscience  hovers  over 
all  our  historical  actuality,  and  is  the  ground  of  all  our  ra- 
tional progress.  Fichte's  stern  .words  remain,  therefore,  eter- 
nally true:  "He  who  has  a  bad  character,  must  absolutely 
create  for  himself  a  better  one." — 

THIRD   CHAPTER. 

Religious  Culture. 

§  152.  Social  culture  contains  the  formal  phase,  moral  cul- 
ture the  real  phase,  of  the  practical  mind.  Conscience  forms 
the  transition  to  religious  culture.  In  its  apodeictic  nature, 
it  is  the  absoluteness  of  spirit.  The  individual  discerns  in 
the  depths  of  its  own  consciousness  the  determinations  of 
universality  and  of  necessity  to  which  it  has  to  subject  itself. 
They  appear  to  it  as  the  voice  of  God.  Religion  makes  its 
appearance  as  soon  as  the  individual  distinguishes  the  Abso- 
lute from  himself  as  personal,  as  a  subject  existing  for  itself 
and  therefore  for  him.  The  atheist  remains  at  the  stage  of 
insight  into  the  absoluteness  of  the  logical  and  physical, 
aesthetic  and  practical  categories.  He  may,  therefore,  b& 
perfectly  moral.  He  lacks  religion,  though  he  loves  to  cha- 
racterize his  uprightness  by  this  name,  and  to  transfer  the 
dogmatic  determinations  of  positive  religion  into  the  ethical 
sphere.  It  belongs  to  the  province  of  religion  that  I  demean 
myself  towards  the  Absolute  not  only  as  toward  that  which 
is  my  own  substance,  and  that  in  relation  to  it  not  I  alone 
am  the  subject,  but  that  to  me  also  the  substance  in  itself  is 
a  personal  subject  for  itself.  If  I  look  upon  myself  as  the 
only  absolute,  I  make  myself  devoid  of  spiritual  essence.  I 
am  only  absolute  self-consciousness,  for  which,  because  it  as 
idea  relates  only  to  itself,  there  remains  only  the  impulse  to- 
a  persistent  conflict  with  every  self-consciousness  not  identi- 
cal with  it.  Were  this  the  case,  such  a  self-consciousness 
would  be  only  theoretical  irony.  In  religion  I  know  the  Abso- 
lute as  essence,  when  I  am  known  by  him.  Everything  else,. 


Religious  Culture.  87 

myself  included,  is  finite  and  transitory,  however  significant 
it  may  be,  however  relatively  and  momentarily  the  Infinite 
may  exist  in  it.  As  existence  even,  it  is  transitory.  The 
Absolute,  positing  itself,  distinguishing  itself  from  itself  in 
unity  with  itself,  is  always  like  to  itself,  and  takes  up  all  the 
iinrest  of  the  phenomenal  world  back  again  into  its  simple 
essence. 

§  153.  This  process  of  the  individual  spirit,  in  which  it  rises 
out  of  the  multiplicity  of  all  relations  into  union  with  the 
Absolute  as  the  substantial  subject,  and  in  which  nature  and 
history  are  united,  we  may  call,  in  a  restricted  sense,  a 
change  of  heart  [Gemuth],  In  a  wider  sense  of  the  word  we 
give  this  name  to  a  certain  sentimental  cheerfulness  (light- 
heartedness),  a  sense  of  comfort — of  little  significance.  The 
highest  emotions  of  the  heart  culminate  in  religion,  whose 
warmth  is  inspired  by  practical  activity  and  conscien- 
tiousness. 

§  154.  Education  has  to  fit  man  for  religion.  (1)  It  gives 
him  the  conception  of  it ;  (2)  it  endeavors  to  have  this  con- 
ception actualized  in  him ;  (3)  it  subordinates  the  theoretical 
and  practical  process  in  fashioning  him  -to  a  determinate 
stand-point  of  religious  culture. 

—In  the  working  out  or  detailed  treatment  of  Pedagogics, 
the  position  which  the  conception  of  religion  occupies  is  very 
uncertain.  Many  writers  on  Education  place  it  at  the  begin- 
ning, while  others  reserve  it  for  the  end.  Others  naively 
bring  it  forward  in  the  midst  of  heterogeneous  surroundings, 
but  know  how  to  say  very  little  concerning  it,  and  urge  teach- 
ers to  kindle  the  fire  of  religious  feeling  in  their  pupils  by 
teaching  them  to  fear  God.  Through  all  their  writing,  we 
hear  the  cry  that  in  Education  nothing  is  so  important  as 
Religion.  Rightly  understood,  this  saying  is  quite  true.  The 
religious  spirit,  the  consciousness  of  the  Absolute,  and  the 
reverence  for  it,  should  permeate  all.  Not  unfrequently,  how- 
ever, we  find  that  what  is  meant  by  religion  is  theology,  or 
the  church  ceremonial,  and  these  are  only  one-sided  phases 
of  the  total  religious  process,  The  Anglican  High- Church 
presents  in  the  colleges  and  universities  of  England  a  sad 
example  of  this  error.  What  can  be  more  deadening  to' the 
spirit,  more  foreign  to  religion,  than  the  morning  and  evening 


88  Theoretical  Process  of  fteligious  Culture. 

prayers  as  they  are  carried  on  at  Oxford  and  Cambridge  with 
machine-like  regularity !  But  also  to  England  belongs  the 
credit  of  the  sad  fact,  that,  according  to  Kohl's  report,  there 
live  in  Manchester,  Liverpool,  Birmingham,  and  London, 
thousands  of  men  who  have  never  enjoyed  any  teaching  in 
religion,  have  never  been  baptized,  who  live  absolutely  with- 
out religion  in  brutal  stupidity.  Religion  must  form  the  cul- 
minating point  of  Education.  It  takes  up  into  itself  the  didac- 
tical and  practical  elements,  and  rises  through  the  force  of 
its  content  to  universality. 

I.  The  Theoretical  Process  of  lleliyious  Culture. 

§  155.  Religion,  in  common  with  every  content  of  the  spirit, 
must  pass  through  three  stages  of  feeling,  conception,  and 
comprehension.  Whatever  may  be  the  special  character  of 
any  religion  it  cannot  avoid  this  psychological  necessity, 
either  in  its  general  history  or  in  the  history  of  the  individual 
consciousness.  The  teacher  must  understand  this  process, 
partly  in  order  that  he  may  make  it  easier  to  the  youth, 
partly  that  he  may  guard  against  the  malformation  of  the 
religious  feeling  which  may  arise  through  the  fact  of  the 
youth's  remaining  in  one  stage  after  he  is  ready  for  another 
and  needs  it.  Pedagogics  must  therefore  lay  out  beforehand 
the  philosophy  of  religion,  on  which  alone  can  we  found  the 
complete  discussion  of  this  idea. 

§  156.  (1)  Religion  exists  first  as  religious  feeling.  The 
person  is  still  immediately  identical  with  the  Divine,  does 
not  yet  distinguish  himself  from  the  absoluteness  of  his  be- 
ing, and  is  in  so  far  determined  by  it.  In  so  far  as  he  feels 
the  divine,  he  is  a  mystery  to  himself.  This  beginning  is 
necessary.  Religion  cannot  be  produced  in  men  from  the 
external  side;  its  genesis  belongs  rather  to  the  primitive 
depths  in  which  God  himself  and  the  individual  soul  are  es- 
sentially one. 

-The  educator  must  not  allow  himself  to  suppose  that  he 
is  able  to  make  a  religion.  Religion  dwells  originally  in  ev- 
ery individual  soul,  for  every  one  is  born  of  God.  Education 
can  only  aid  the  religious  feeling  in  its  development.  As  far 
as  regards  the  psychological  form,  it  was  quite  correct  for 
Schleiermacher  and  his  followers  to  characterize  the  absolute- 


Theoretical  Process  of  Religious  Culture.  89 

ness  of  the  religious  feeling  as  the  feeling  of  dependence,  for 
feeling  is  determined  by  that  which  it  feels ;  it  depends  upon 
its  content.  But  in  so  far  as  God  constitutes  the  content  of 
the  feeling,  there  appears  the  opposite  of  all  dependence  or  ab- 
solute emancipation.  I  maintain  this  in  opposition  to  Schlei- 
ermacher.  Religion  lifts  man  above  the  finite,  temporal  and 
transitory,  and  frees  him  from  the  control  of  the  phenomenal 
world.  Even  the  lowest  form  of  religion  does  this ;  and  when 
it  is  said  that  Schleiermacher  has  been  unjustly  criticized 
for  this  expression  of  dependence,  this  distinction  is  over- 
looked.— 

§  157.  But  religious  feeling  as  such  rises  into  something 
higher  when  the  spirit  distinguishes  the  content  of  this  reli- 
gious feeling  from  any  other  content  which  it  also  feels,  rep- 
resents it  clearly  to  itself,  and  places  itself  over  against  it 
formally  as  a  free  individual. 

— But  we  must  not  understand  that  the  religious  feeling  is 
destroyed  in  this  process ;  in  rising  to  the  form  of  distinct 
representation,  it  remains  at  the  same  time  as  a  necessary 
form  of  the  Intelligence. — 

§  158.  If  the  spirit  is  held  back  and  prevented  from  passing 
out  of  the  simplicity  of  feeling  into  the  act  of  distinguishing 
the  perception  from  what  it  becomes,  the  conception — if  its 
efforts  towards  the  forming  of  this  conception  are  continually 
re  dissolved  into  feeling,  then  feeling,  which  was  as  the  first 
step  perfectly  healthy  and  correct,  will  become  morbid  and 
degenerate  into  a  wretched  mysticism.  Education  must, 
therefore,  make  sure  that  this  feeling  is  not  destroyed  by  the 
progress  of  its  content  into  perception  and  conception  on  the 
side  of  psychological  form,  but  rather  that  it  attains  truth 
thereby. 

§  159.  (2)  Conception  as  the  ideally  transformed  percep- 
tion dissects  the  religious  content  on  its  different  sides,  and 
follows  each  of  these  to  its  consequence.  Imagination  con- 
trols the  individual  conceptions,  but  by  no  means  with  that 
absoluteness  which  is  often  supposed ;  for  each  picture  has 
in  itself  its  logical  consequence  to  which  imagination  must 
yield ;  e.g.  if  a  religion  represents  God  as  an  animal,  or  as 
half  animal  and  half  man,  or  as  man,  each  of  these  conceptions 
has  in  its  development  its  consequences  for  the  imagination. 


90  Theoretical  Process  of  Religious  Culture. 

§  160.  "We  rise  out  of  the  stage  of  Conception  when  the  spi- 
rit tries  to  determine  the  universality  of  its  content  according 
to  its  necessity,  i.e.  when  it  begins  to  think.  The  necessity 
of  its  pictures  is  a  mere  presupposition  for  the  imagination. 
The  thinking  activity,  however,  recognizes  not  only  the  con- 
tradiction which  exists  between  the  sensuous,  limited,  form 
of  the  individual  conception,  and  the  absolute  nature  of  its- 
content,  but  also  the  contradiction  in  which  the  conceptions 
find  themselves  with  respect  to  each  other. 

§  161.  If  the  spirit  is  prevented  from  passing  out  of  the 
varied  pictures  of  conception  to  the  supersensuous  clearness 
and  simplicity  of  the  thinking  activity — if  the  content  which 
it  already  begins  to  seize  as  idea  is  again  dissolved  into  the 
confusion  of  the  picture-world,  then  the  religion  of  imagina- 
tion, which  was  a  perfectly  proper  form  as  the  second  step, 
becomes  perverted  into  some  form  of  idolatry,  either  coarse 
or  refined.  Education  must  therefore  not  oppose  the  thinking 
activity  if  the  latter  undertakes  to  criticize  religious  concep- 
tions ;  on  the  contrary,  it  must  guide  this  so  that  the  dis- 
covery of  the  contradictions  which  unavoidably  adhere  to 
Sensuous  form  shall  not  mislead  the  youth  into  the  folly  of 
throwing  away,  with  the  relative  untruth  of  the  form,  also 
the  religious  content  in  general. 

— It  is  an  error  for  educators  to  desire  to  keep  the  imagina- 
tion apart  from  religious  feeling,  but  it  is  also  an  error  to 
detain  the  mind,  which  is  on  its  formal  side  the  activity  of 
knowing,  in  the  stage  of  imagination,  and  to  desire  to  con- 
demn it  thence  into  the  service  of  canonical  allegories.  The 
more,  in  opposition  to  this,  it  is  possessed  with  the  charm  of 
thinking,  the  more  is  it  in  danger  of  condemning  the  content 
of  religion  itself  as  a  mere  fictitious  conception.  As  a  transi- 
tion-stage the  religion  of  imagination  is  perfectly  normal, 
and  it  does  not  in  the  least  impair  freedom  if,  for  example, 
one  has  personified  evil  as  a  living  Devil.  The  error  does 
not  lie  in  this,  but  in  the  making  absolute  these  determinate, 
.esthetic  forms  of  religion.  The  reaction  of  the  thinking- 
activity  against  such  sesthectic  absolutism  then  undertakes 
in  its  negative  absolutism  to  despise  the  content  also,  as  if 
it  were  a  mere  conception. — 

§  162.    (3)  In  the  thinking  activity  the  spirit  attains  that 


Theoretical  Process  of  Religious  Culture.  91 

form  of  the  religious  content  which  is  identical  with  that  of  its 
simple  consciousness,  and  above  which  there  is  no  other  for  the 
intelligence  as  theoretical.  But  we  distinguish  three  varie- 
ties in  this  thinking  activity  :  the  abstract,  the  reflective,  and 
the  speculative.  The  Abstract  gives  us  the  religious  content 
of  consciousness  in  the  form  of  abstractions  or  dogmas,  i.e. 
propositions  which  set  up  a  definition  as  a  universal,  and 
add  to  it  another  as  the  reason  for  its  necessity.  The  Re- 
flective stage  busies  itself  with  the  relation  of  dogmas  to  each 
other,  and  with  the  search  for  the  grounds  on  which  their  ne- 
cessity must  rest.  It  is  essentially  critical,  and  hence  skep- 
tical. The  explanation  of  the  dogmas,  which  is  carried  on  in 
this  process  of  reasoning  and  skeptical  investigation,  is  com- 
pleted alone  in  speculative  thinking,  which  recognizes  the 
free  unity  of  the  content  and  its  form  as  its  own  proper  self- 
determination  of  the  content,  creating  its  own  differences. 
Education  must  know  this  stage  of  the  intelligence,  partly 
that  it  may  in  advance  preserve,  in  the  midst  of  its  changes, 
that  repose  which  it  brings  into  the  consciousness ;  partly 
that  it  may  be  able  to  lead  to  the  process  of  change  itself,  in 
accordance  with  the  organic  connection  of  its  phases.  We 
should  prevent  the  criticism  of  the  abstract  understanding 
by  the  reflective  stage  as  little  as  we  should  that  of  the  ima- 
gination by  the  thinking  activity.  But  the  stage  of  reflection 
is  not  the  last  possibility  of  the  thinking  activity,  although, 
in  the  variety  of  its  skepticism  it  often  takes  itself  for  such,, 
and,  with  the  emptiness  of  mere  negation  to  which  it  holds, 
often  brings  itself  forward  into  undesirable  prominence.  It 
becomes  evident,  in  this  view,  how  very  necessary  for  man, 
with  respect  to  religion,  is  a  genuine  philosophical  culture, 
so  that  he  may  not  lose  the  certainty  of  the  existence  of  the 
Absolute  in  the  midst  of  the  obstinacy  of  dogmas  and  the 
changes  of  opinions. 

§  163.  Education  must  then  not  fear  the  descent  into  dog- 
matic abstraction,  since  this  is  an  indispensable  means  for 
theoretical  culture  in  its  totality,  and  the  consciousness  can- 
not dispense  with  it  in  its  history.  But  Education  has,  in  the 
concrete,  carefully  to  discern  in  which  of  these  stages  of 
culture  any  particular  consciousness  may  be.  For  if  for 
mankind  as  a  race  the  fostering  of  philosophy  is  absolutely 


92  Practical  Process  of  Religious  Culture. 

necessary,  it  by  no  means  follows  that  this  necessity  exists 
for  each  individual.  To  children,  to  women,  e.g.  for  all  kinds 
of  simple  and  limited  lives,  the  form  of  the  religion  of  the 
imagination  is  well  suited,  and  the  form  of  comprehension 
can  come  only  relatively  to  them.  Education  must  not,  then, 
desire  powerfully  and  prematurely  to  develop  the  thinking 
activity  before  the  intelligence  is  really  fully  grown. 

— The  superficial  thinking  which  many  teachers  demand 
in  the  sphere  of  religion  is  no  less  impractical  than  the  want 
of  all  guidance  into  rightly  ordered  meditations  on  religious 
subjects.  It  is  natural  that  the  lower  form  of  intelligence 
should,  in  contrast  with  the  higher,  appear  to  be  frivolous, 
because  it  has  no  need  of  change  of  form  as  the  higher  has, 
and  on  this  account  it  looks  upon  the  destruction  of  the  form 
of  a  picture  or  a  dogma  as  the  destruction  of  religion  itself. 
In  our  time  the  idea  is  very  prevalent  that  the  content  itself 
must  change  with  the  changing  of  the  psychological  form, 
and  that  therefore  a  religion  in  the  stage  of  feeling,  of  con- 
ception, and  of  comprehension,  can  no  longer  be  the  same  in 
its  essence.  These  suppositions,  which  are  so  popular,  and 
are  considered  to  be  high  philosophy,  spring  from  the  super- 
ficiality of  psychological  inquiry. — 

§  164.  The  theoretical  culture  of  the  religious  feeling  en- 
deavors therefore  with  the  freedom  of  philosophical  criticism 
to  elevate  the  presupposition  of  Reason  in  the  religious  con- 
tent to  self-assured  insight  by  means  of  the  proof  of  the 
necessity  of  its  determinations.  This  is  the  only  reasonable 
pedagogical  way  not  only  to  prevent  the  degeneration  of  the 
religious  consciousness  into  a  miserable  mysticism  or  into 
frivolity,  but  also  to  remove  these  if  they  are  already  ex- 
istent. 

—External  seclusion  avails  nothing.  The  crises  of  the 
world-historical  changes  in  the  religious  consciousness  find 
their  way  through  the  thickest  cloister  walls ;  the  philoso- 
pher Reinhold  was  a  pupil  of  the  Jesuits,  the  philosopher 
Schad  of  the  Benedictines. — 

II.   The  Practical  Process  of  Religious  Culture. 

§  165.  The  theoretical  culture  is  truly  practical,  for  it  gives 
man  definite  conceptions  and  thoughts  of  the  Divine  and  his 


Practical  Process  of  Religious  Culture.  93 

• 

relation  to  him.  But  in  a  narrower  sense  that  culture  is  prac- 
tical which  relates  to  the  Will  as  such.  Education  has  in  this 
respect  to  distinguish  (1)  consecration — religious  feeling  in 
general, — (2)  the  induction  of  the  youth  into  the  forms  of  a 
positive  religion,  and  (3)  his  reconciliation  with  his  lot. 

§  166.  (1)  Religious  feeling  presupposes  morality  as  an  in- 
dispensable  condition  without  which  it  cannot  inculcate  its 
ideas.  But  if  man  from  a  merely  moral  stand-point  places 
himself  in  relation  to  the  idea  of  Duty  as  such,  the  ethical 
religious  stand-point  differs  from  it  in  this,  that  it  places  the 
necessity  of  the  Good  as  the  self-determination  of  the  divine 
Will  and  thus  makes  of  practice  a  personal  relation  to  God, 
changing  the  Good  to  the  Holy  and  the  Evil  to  Sin.  Educa- 
tion must  therefore  first  accustom  the  youth  to  the  idea,  that 
in  doing  the  Good  he  unites  himself  with  God  as  with  the 
absolute  Person,  but  that  in  doing  Evil  he  separates  himself 
from  him.  The  feeling  that  he  through  his  deed  comes  into 
contact  with  God  himself,  positively  or  negatively,  deepens 
the  moral  conduct  to  an  intense  sensibility  of  the  heart. 

§  167.  (2)  The  religious  sense N  which  grows  in  the  child  that 
he  has  an  uninterrupted  personal  relation  to  the  Absolute  as 
a  person,  constitutes  the  beginning  of  the  practical  forming 
of  religion.  The  second  step  is  the  induction  of  the  child  into 
the  objective  forms  of  worship  established  in  some  positive 
religion.  Through  religious  training  the  child  learns  to  re- 
nounce his  egotism  ;  through  attendance  on  religious  services 
he  learns  to  give  expression  to  his  religious  feeling  in  prayer, 
in  the  use  of  symbols,  and  in  church  festivals.  Education 
must,  however,  endeavor  to  retain  freedom  with  regard  to 
these  forms,  so  that  they  shall  not  be  confounded  with  Reli- 
gion itself.  Religion  displays  itself  in  these  ceremonies,  but 
they  as  mere  forms  are  of  value  only  in  so  far  as  they,  while 
externalities,  are  manifestations  of  the  spirit  which  produ- 
ces them. 

—If  the  mechanism  of  ceremonial  forms  is  taken  as  reli- 
gion itself,  the  service  of  God  degenerates  into  the  false  ser 
vice  of  religion,  as  Kant  has  designated  it  in  Religion  within 
the  Limits  of  Pure  Reason.  Nothing  is  more  destructive  to 
the  sensibility  to  all  real  religious  culture  than  the  want  of 
earnestness  with  which  prayers,  readings  from  the  Bible, 


94  Practical  Process  of  Religious  Culture. 

• 

attendance  on  church,  the  communion,  &c.,  are  often  practised 
by  teachers.  But  one  must  not  conclude  from  this  extreme 
that  an  ignorance  of  all  sacred  forms  in  general  would  be 
more  desirable  for  the  child. — 

§  168.  (3)  It  is  possible  that  a  man  on  the  stand-point  of 
ecclesiastical  religious  observances  may  be  fully  contented ; 
he  may  be  fully  occupied  in  them,  and  perfect  his  life  there- 
by in  perfect  content.  But  by  far  the  greater  number  of  men 
will  see  themselves  forced  to  experience  the  truth  of  religion 
in  the  hard  vicissitudes  of  their  lot,  since  they  carry  on  some 
business,  and  with  that  business  create  for  themselves  a 
past  whose  consequences  condition  their  future.  They  limit 
themselves  through  their  deeds,  whose  involuntary- voluntary 
authors  they  become ;  involuntary  in  so  far  as  they  are  chal- 
lenged to  the  deeds  from  the  totality  of  events,  voluntary  in  so 
far  as  they  undertake  them  and  bring  about  an  actual  change 
in  the  world.  The  history  of  the  individual  man  appears 
therefore  on  the  one  hand,  if  we  consider  its  material,  as  the 
work  of  circumstances ;  but  on  the  other  hand,  if  we  reflect 
on  the  form,  as  the  act  of  a  pelf  determining  actor.  Want  of 
freedom  (the  being  determined  through  the  given  situation) 
and  freedom  (the  determination  to  the  act)  are  united  in 
actual  life  as  something  which  is  exactly  so,  and  cannot 
become  anything  else  as  final.  The  essence  of  the  spiritual 
being  stands  always  over  against  this  unavoidable  limitation 
•as  that  which  is  in  itself  infinite,  which  is  beyond  all  history, 
because  the  absolute  spirit,  in  and  for  itself,  has  no  history. 
That  which  one  calls  his  history  is  only  the  manifesting  of 
himself,  and  his  everlasting  return  out  of  this  manifestation 
into  himself  an  act  which  in  absolute  spirit  coincides  with 
the  transceuding  of  all  manifestation.  From  the  nature  which 
belongs  to  him  there  arises  for  the  individual  spirit  the  im- 
pulse towards  a  holy  life,  i.e.  the  being  freed  from  his  history 
even  in  the  midst  of  its  process.  He  gratifies  this  impulse 
negatively  through  the  considering  of  what  has  happened  as 
past  and  gone,  as  that  which  lives  now  only  ideally  in  the 
recollection ;  and  positively  through  the  positing  of  a  new 
actual  existence  in  which  he  strives  to  realize  the  idea  of  free- 
dom which  constitutes  his  necessity,  as  purer  and  higher  than 
before.  This  constant  new-birth  out  of  the  grave  of  the  past 


Practical  Process  of  Religious  Culture.  95 

to  the  life  of  a  more  beautiful  future  is  the  genuine  reconci- 
liation with  destiny.  The  false  reconciliation  may  assume 
different  forms.  It  may  abstain  from  all  action  because  man 
through  this  limits  himself  and  becomes  responsible.  This 
is  to  despair  of  freedom,  which  condemns  the  spirit  to  the 
loss  of  itself  since  its  nature  demands  activity.  The  abstract 
quietism  of  the  Indian  penitents,  of  the  Buddhists,  of  the  fa- 
natical ascetics,  of  the  Protestant  recluses,  &c.,  is  an  error  of 
this  kind.  The  man  may  become  indifferent  about  the  ethi- 
cal determinateness  of  his  deeds.  In  this  case  he  acts ;  but 
because  he  has  no  faith  in  the  necessary  connection  of  his 
deeds  through  the  means  of  freedom,  a  connection  which  he 
would  willingly  ascribe  to  mere  chance,  he  loses  his  spiritual 
essence.  This  is  the  error  of  indifference  and  of  its  frivolity, 
which  denies  the  open  mystery  of  the  ruling  of  destiny.  Edu- 
cation must  therefore  imbue  man  with  respect  for  external 
movements  of  history  and  with  confidence  in  the  inexhausti- 
bleness  of  the  progressive  human  spirit,  since  only  by  produ- 
cing better  things  can  he  affirmatively  elevate  himself  above 
his  past.  This  active  acknowledgment  of  the  necessity  of 
freedom  as  the  determining  principle  of  destiny  gives  the 
highest  satisfaction  to  which  practical  religious  feeling  may 
arrive,  for  blessedness  develops  itself  in  it — that  blessedness 
which  does  not  know  that  it  is  circumscribed  by  linitude 
and  transitoriness,  and  which  possesses  the  immortal  cour- 
age to  strive  always  anew  for  perfection  with  free  resigna- 
tion at '  its  non-realization,  so  that  happiness  and  misery, 
pleasure  and  pain,  are  conquered  by  the  power  of  disinter- 
ested self-sacrifice. 

—The  escape  from  action  in  an  artificial  absence  of  all 
events  in  life,  which  often  sinks  to  a  veritable  brutalizing  of 
man.  is  the  distinguishing  feature  of  all  monkish  pedagogics. 
In  our  time  there  is  especial  need  of  a  reconciliation  between 
man  and  destiny,  for  all  the  world  is  discontented.  The  worst 
form  of  discontent  is  when  one  is,  as  the  French  say,  blase; 
though  the  word  is  not,  as  many  fancy,  derived  originally 
from  the  French,  but  from  the  Greek  /9Aa££^,  to  wither.  It  is 
true  that  all  culture  passes  through  phases,  each  of  which 
becomes  momentarily  and  relatively  wearisome,  and  that  in 
so  far  one  may  be  blase  in  any  age.  But  in  modern  times 


96  Absolute  Process  of  Religious  Culture. 

this  state  of  feeling  has  increased  to  that  of  thorough  disgust 
— disgust  which  nevertheless  at  the  same  time  demands  en- 
joyment. The  one  who  is  blase  has  enjoyed  everything,  felt 
everything,  mocked  at  everything.  He  has  passed  from  the 
enjoyment  of  pleasure  to  sentimentality,  i.e.  to  rioting  in 
feeling ;  from  sentimentality  to  irony  with  regard  to  feeling, 
and  from  this  to  the  torment  of  feeling  his  entire  weakness 
and  emptiness  as  opposed  to  these.  He  ridicules  this  also, 
as  if  if  it  were  a  consolation  to  him  totting  away  the  universe 
like  a  squeezed  lemon,  and  to  be  able  to  assert  that  in  pure 
nothingness  lies  the  truth  of  all  things.  And  yet  neverthe- 
less this  irony  furnishes  the  point  on  which  Education  can 
fasten,  in  order  to  kindle  anew  in  him  the  religious  feeling, 
and  to  lead  him  back  to  a  loving  recognition  of  actuality,  to 
a  respect  for  his  own  history.  The  greatest  difficulty  which 
Education  has  to  encounter  here  is  the  coquetry,  the  misera- 
ble eminence  and  self-satisfaction  which  have  undermined 
the  man  and  made  him  incapable  of  all  simple  and  natural 
enjoyment.  It  is  not  too  much  to  assert  that  many  pupils  of 
our  Gymnasia  are  affected  with  this  malady.  Our  literature 
is  full  of  its  products.  It  inveighs  against  its  dissipation,, 
and  nevertheless  at  the  same  time  cannot  resist  a  certain  kind 
of  pleasure  in  it.  Diabolical  sentimentality ! 

III.  The  Absolute  Process  of  Religious  Culture. 

§  169.  In  comparing  the  stages  of  the  theoretical  and  prac- 
tical culture  of  the  religious  feeling  their  internal  correspon- 
dence appears.  Peeling,  as  immediate  knowledge,  and  the 
consecration  of  the  sense  by  means  of  piety ;  imagination  with 
all  its  images,  and  the  church  services  with  their  ceremonial 
observances;  finally,  the  comprehending  of  religion  as  the 
reconciliation  with  destiny,  as  the  internal  emancipation 
from  the  dominion  of  external  events — all  these  correspond 
to  each  other.  If  we  seize  this  parallelism  all  together,  we 
have  the  progress  which  religion  must  make  in  its  historical 
process,  in  which  it  (1)  begins  as  natural;  (2)  goes  on  to  his- 
torical precision,  and  (3)  elevates  this  to  a  rational  faith. 
These  stages  await  every  man  in  as  far  as  he  lives  through 
a  complete  religious  culture,  but  this  may  be  for  the  indivi- 
dual a  question  of  chance. 


Absolute  Process  of  Religious  Culture.  97 

§  170.  (1)  A  child  has  as  yet  no  definite  religious  feel- 
ing. He  is  still  only  a  possibility  capable  of  manifold  deter- 
minations. But,  since  he  is  a  spirit,  the  essence  of  religion 
is  active  in  him,  though  as  yet  in  an  unconscious  form.  The 
substance  of  spirit  attests  its  presence  in  every  individual, 
through  his  mysterious  impulse  toward  the  absolute  and 
towards  intercourse  with  God.  This  is  the  initiatory  stage 
of  natural  religion,  which  must  not  be  confounded  with  the 
religion  which  makes  nature  the  object  of  worship  (fetich- 
ism,  &c.) 

§  171.  (2)  But  while  the  child  lives  into  this  in  his  internal 
life,  he  comes  in  contact  with  definite  forms  of  religion,  and 
will  naturally,  through  the  mediation  of  the  family,  be  intro- 
duced to  some  one  of  them.  His  religious  feeling  takes  now 
a  particular  direction,  and  he  accepts  religion  in  one  of  its 
historical  forms.  This  positive  religion  meets  the  precise 
want  of  the  child,  because  it  brings  into  his  consciousness, 
by  means  of  teaching  and  sacred  rites,  the  principal  elements 
which  are  found  in  the  nature  of  religion. 

^  172.  (3)  In  contradistinction  to  the  natural  basis  of  reli- 
gious feeling,  all  historical  religions  rest  on  the  authoritative 
basis  of  revelation  from  God  to  man.  They  address  them- 
selves to  the  imagination,  and  offer  a  system  of  objective 
forms  of  worship  and  ceremonies.  But  spirit,  as  eternal,  as 
self-identical,  cannot  forbear  as  thinking  activity  to  sub- 
ject the  traditional  religion  to  criticism  and  to  compare  it  as 
a  phenomenal  existence.  From  this  criticism  arises  a  reli- 
gion which  satisfies  the  demands  of  the  reason,  and  which, 
by  means  of  insight  into  the  necessity  of  the  historical  pro- 
cess, leads  to  the  exercise  of  a,  genuine  toleration  towards  its 
many-sided  forms.  This  religion  mediates  between  the  unity 
of  the  thinking  consciousness  and  the  religious  content,  while 
this  content,  in  the  history  of  religious  feeling,  appears  theo- 
retically as  dogma,  and  practically  as  the  command  of  an 
absolute  and  incomprehensible  authority.  It  is  just  as  sim- 
ple as  the  unsophisticated  natural  religious  feeling,  but  its 
simplicity  is  at  the  same  time  master  of  itself.  It  is  just  as 
specific  in  its  determinations  as  the  historical  religion,  but 
its  determinateness  is  at  the  same  time  universal,  since  it  is 
worked  out  by  the  thinking  reason. 

8 


98  Absolute  Process  of  Religious  Culture. 

§  173.  Education  must  superintend  the  development  of  the 
religious  consciousness  towards  an  insight  into  the  necessary 
consequence  of  its  different  stages.  Nothing  is  more  absurd 
than  for  the  educator  to  desire  to  avoid  the  introduction  of 
a  positive  religion,  or  a  definite  creed,  as  a  middle  stage  be- 
tween the  natural  beginning  of  religious  feeling  and  its  end 
in  philosophical  culture.  Only  when  a  man  has  lived  through 
the  entire  range  of  one-sided  phases — through  the  crudeness 
of  such  a  concrete  individualizing  of  religion,  and  has  come 
to  recognize  the  universal  nature  of  religion  in  a  special  form 
of  it  which  excludes  other  forms — only  when  the  spirit  of  a 
congregation  has  taken  him  into  its  number,  is  he  ripe  to 
criticize  religion  in  a  conciliatory  spirit,  because  he  has  then 
gained  a  religious  character  through  that  historical  experi- 
ence. The  self-comprehending  universality  must  have  such 
a  solid  basis  as  this  in  the  life  of  the  man  ;  it  can  never  form 
the  beginning  of  one's  culture,  but  it  may  constitute  the  end 
which  turns  back  again  to  the  beginning.  Most  men  remain 
at  the  historical  stand-point.  The  religion  of  reason,  as  that 
of  the  minority,  constitutes  in  the  different  religions  the  invi- 
sible church,  which  seeks  by  progressive  reform  to  purify 
these  religions  from  superstition  and  unbelief.  It  is  the  duty 
of  the  state,  by  making  all  churches  equal  in  the  sight  of  the 
law,  to  guard  religion  from  the  temptation  of  impure  motives, 
and,  through  the  granting  of  such  freedom  to  religious  indi- 
viduality, to  help  forward  the  unity  of  a  rational  insight  into 
religion  which  is  distinct  from  the  religious  feeling  only  in 
its  form,  not  in  its  content.  Not  a  philosopher,  but  Jesus 
of  Nazareth  freed  the  world  from  all  selfishness  and  all 
bondage. 

§  174.  With  this  highest  theoretical  and  practical  emanci- 
pation, the  general  work  of  education  ends.  It  remains  now 
to  be  shown  now  the  general  idea  of  Education  shapes  its 
special  elements  into  their  appropriate  forms.  From  the  na- 
ture of  Pedagogics,  which  concerns  itself  with  man  in  his 
entirety,  this  exposition  belongs  partly  to  the  history  of  cul- 
ture in  general,  partly  to  the  history  of  religion,  partly  to  the 
philosophy  of  history.  The  pedagogical  element  in  it  always 
lies  in  the  ideal  which  the  spirit  of  a  nation  or  of  an  age  cre- 
ates out  of  itself,  and  which  it  seeks  to  realize  in  its  youth. 


THIRD    PART. 
Particular  Systems  of  Education. 

§  175.  The  definite  actuality. of  Education  originates  in  the 
fact  that  its  general  idea  is  individualized,  according  to  its 
special  elements,  in  a  specific  statement  which  we  call  a 
pedagogical  principle.  The  number  of  these  principles  is 
not  unlimited,  but  from  the  idea  of  Education  contains  only 
a  certain  number.  If  we  derive  them  therefore,  we  derive  at 
the  same  time  the  history  of  Pedagogics,  which  can  from  its 
very  nature  do  nothing  else  than  make  actual  in  itself  the 
possibilities  involved  in  the  idea  of  Education.  Such  a  deri- 
vation may  be  called  an  d  priori  construction  of  history,  but 
it  is  different  from  what  is  generally  denoted  by  this  term  in 
not  pretending  to  deduce  single  events  and  characters.  All 
empirical  details  are  confirmation  or  illustration  for  it,  but  it 
does  not  attempt  to  seek  this  empirical  element  d  priori. 

-The  history  of  Pedagogics  is  still  in  the  stage  of  infancy. 
At  one  time  it  is  taken  up  into  the  sphere  of  Politics ;  at  an- 
other, into  that  of  the  history  of  Culture.  The  productions 
of  some  of  the  most  distinguished  writers  on  the  subject  are 
now  antiquated.  Cramer  of  Stralsund  made,  in  1832,  an  ex- 
cellent beginning  in  a  comprehensive  and  thorough  history  of 
Pedagogy ;  but  in  the  beginning  of  his  second  part  he  dwelt 
too  long  upon  the  Greeks,  and  lost  himself  in  too  wide  an  expo- 
sition of  practical  Philosophy  in  general.  Alexander  Kapp 
has  given  us  excellent  treatises  on  the  Pedagogics  of  Aris- 
totle and  Plato.  But  with  regard  to  modern  Pedagogics  we 
have  relatively  very  little.  Karl  v.  Raumer,  in  1843,  be- 
gan to  publish  a  history  of  Pedagogics  since  the  time  of  the 
revival  of  classical  studies,  and  has  accomplished  much  of 
value  on  the  biographical  side.  But  the  idea  of  the  general 
connection  and  dependence  of  the  several  manifestations  has 
not  received  much  attention,  and  since  the  time  of  Pestalozzi 
books  have  assumed  the  character  of  biographical  confes- 


100  Particular  Systems  of  Education. 

sions.  Strumpell,  in  1843,  developed  the  Pedagogics  of  Kantr 
Fichte,  and  Herbart.— 

§  176.  Man  is  educated  by  man  for  humanity.  This  is  the 
fundamental  idea  of  all  Pedagogics.  But  in  the  shaping  of 
Pedagogics  we  cannot  begin  with  the  idea  of  humanity  as 
such,  but  only  with  the  natural  form  in  which  it  primarily 
manifests  itself — that  of  the  nation.  But  the  naturalness  of 
this  principle  disappears  in  its  development,  since  nations 
appear  in  interaction  on  each  other  and  begin  dimly  to  per- 
ceive their  unity  of  species.  The  freedom  of  spirit  over  na- 
ture makes  its  appearance,  but  to  the  spirit  explicitly  in  the 
transcendent  form  of  abstract  theistic  religion,  in  which  God 
appears  as  the  ruler  over  Nature  as  merely  dependent ;  and 
His  chosen  people  plant  the  root  of  their  nationality  no 
longer  in  the  earth,  but  in  this  belief.  The  unity  of  the 
abstractly  natural  and  abstractly  spiritual  determinateness 
is  the  concrete  unity  of  the  spirit  with  nature,  in  which  it 
recognizes  nature  as  its  necessary  organ,  and  itself  as  in  its 
nature  divine.  Spirit  in  this  stage,  as  the  internal  presuppo- 
sition of  the  two  previously  named,  takes  up  into  itself  on 
one  hand  the  phase  of  nationality,  since  this  is  the  form  of  ite 
immediate  individuali/ation  ;  but  it  no  longer  distinguishes 
between  nations  as  if  they  were  abstractly  severed  the  one 
from  the  other,  as  the  Greeks  shut  out  all  other  nations 
under  the  name  of  barbarians.  It  also  takes  up  into  itself 
the  phase  of  spirituality,  since  it  knows  itself  as  spirit^ 
and  knows  itself  to  be  free  from  nature,  and  yet  it  does  not 
estrange  itself  as  the  Jews  did  in  their  representation  of  pure 
spirit,  in  reference  to  which  nature  seems  to  be  only  the  work 
of  its  caprice.  Humanity  knows  nature  as  its  own,  because 
it  knows  the  Divine  spirit  and  its  creative  energy  manifest- 
ing itself  in  nature  and  history,  as  also  the  essence  of  its  own 
spirit.  Education  can  be  complete  only  with  Christianity  a& 
the  religion  of  humanity. 

§  177.  We  have  thus  three  different  systems  of  religion— 
(1)  the  National;  (2)  the  Theocratic;  and  (3)  the  Humanita- 
rian. The  first  works  in  harmony  with  nature  since  it  educates 
the  individual  as  a  type  of  his.  species.  The  original  nation- 
ality endeavors  sharply  to  distinguish  itself  from  others,  and 
to  impress  on  each  person  the  stamp  of  its  uniform  type. 


System  of  National  Education.  101 

One  individual  is  like  every  other,  or  at  least  should  be  so. 
The  second  system  in  its  manner  of  manifestation  is  identical 
with  the  first.  It  even  marks  the  national  difference  more 
emphatically;  but  the  ground  of  the  uniformity  of  the  indi- 
viduals is  with  it  not  merely  the  natural  common  interest, 
but  it  is  the  consequence  of  the  spiritual  unity,  which  ab- 
stracts from  nature,  and  as  history,  satisfied  with  no  present, 
hovers  continual!}'  outside  of  itself  between  past  and  future. 
The  theocratic  system  educates  the  individual  as  the  servant 
of  God.  He  is  the  true  Jew  only  in  so  far  as  he  is  this ;  the 
genealogical  identity  with  the  father  Abraham  is  a  condition 
but  not  the  principle  of  the  nationality.  The  third  system 
liberates  the  individual  to  the  enjoyment  of  freedom  as  his 
essence,  and  educates  the  human  being  within  national  lim- 
its which  no  longer  separate  but  unite,  and,  in  the  conscious- 
ness that  each  individual,  without  any  kind*  of  mediation, 
has  a  direct  relation  to  God,  makes  of  him  a  man  who  knows 
himself  to  be  a  member  of  the  spiritual  world  of  humanity. 
We  can  have  no  fourth  system  beyond  this.  From  the  side 
of  the  State-Pedagogics  we  might  characterize  these  sys- 
tems as  that  of  the  nation-State,  the  God-State,  and  the 
humanity-State.  From  the  time  of  the  establishment  of  the 
last,  no  one  nation  can  attain  to  any  sovereignty  over  the 
others.  By  means  of  the  world-religion  of  Christianity,  the 
education  of  nations  has  come  to  the  point  of  taking  for  its 
ideal,  man  as  determining  himself  according  to  the  demands 
of  reason. 

FIRST  DIVISION. 
THE  SYSTKM  OF  NATIONAL  EDUCATION. 

§  178.  The  National  is  the  primitive  system  of  education, 
•since  the  family  is  the  organic  starting-point  of  all  education, 
and  is  in  its  enlargement  the  basis  of  nationality. 

—Education  is  always  education  of  the  mind.  Even  unor- 
ganized nations,  those  in  a  state  of  nature,  the  so-called  sav- 
age nations,  are  possessed  of  something  more  than  a  mere 
education  of  the  body ;  for,  though  they  set  much  value  upon 
gymnastic  and  warlike  practice  and  give  much  time  to  them, 
they  inculcate  also  respect  for  parents,  for  the  aged,  and 
for  the  decrees  of  the  community.  Education  with  them  is 
essentially  family  training,  and  its  content  is  natural  love 


102  System  of  National  Education. 

and  reverence.  We  cannot  deny  that  the  finer  forms  of  those 
to  which  we  are  accustomed  are  wanting.  Besides,  education 
among  all  these  people  of  nature  is  very  simple  and  much 
the  same,  though  great  differences  in  its  management  may 
exist  arising  from  differences  of  situation  or  from  tempera- 
ment of  race. — 

§  179.  National  Education  is  divided  into  three  special  sys- 
tems :  (1)  Passive,  (2)  Active,  (3)  Individual.  It  begins  with 
the  humility  of  an  abstract  subjection  to  nature,  and  ends 
with  the  arrogance  of  an  abstract  rejection  of  nature. 

§  180.  Man  yields  at  first  to  the  natural  authority  of  the 
family ;  he  obeys  unconditionally  its  behests.  Then  he  sub- 
stitutes for  the  family,  as  he  goes  on  his  culture,  the  artificial 
family  of  his  caste,  to  whose  rules  he  again  unconditionally 
yields.  To  dispense  with  this  artificialty  and  this  tyranny, 
at  last  he  abstracts  himself  from  the  family  and  from  culture. 
He  flees  from  both,  and  becoming  a  monk  he  again  subjects 
himself  to  the  tyranny  of  his  order.  The  monks  presents  to 
us  the  mere  type  of  his  species. 

§  181.  This  absolute  abstraction  from  nature  and  from  cul- 
ture, this  quietism  of  spiritual  isolation,  is  the  ultimate  result 
of  the  Passive  system.  In  opposition  to  this,  the  Active 
system  seeks  the  positive  vanquishing  of  naturalness.  Its 
people  are  courageous.  They  attack  other  nations  in  order 
to  rule  over  them  as  conquerors.  They  live  for  the  continua- 
tion of  their  life  after  death,  and  build  for  themselves  on  this 
account  tombs  of  granite.  They  brave  the  dangers  of  the  sea. 
The  abstract  prose  of  the  patriarchal-state,  the  fantastic  chi- 
meras of  the  caste-state,  the  ascetic  self-renunciation  of  the 
cloister- state,  yield  gradually  to  the  recognition  of  actuality ; 
and  the  fundamental  principle  of  Persian  education  consisted 
in  the  inculcation  of  veracity. 

§  182.  But  the  nationality  which  is  occupied  with  simple, 
natural  elements — other  nations,  death,  the  mystery  of  the 
ocean — may  revert  to  the  abstractions  of  the  previous  stage, 
which  in  education  often  take  on  cruel  forms — nay,  often 
truly  horrible.  First,  when  the  spirit  begins  not  only  to  sus- 
pect its  true  nature,  but  rather  to  recognize  itself  as  the  true 
essence ;  and  when  the  God  of  Light  places  as  the  motto  on 
his  temple  the  command  to  self-knowledge,  the  natural  indi- 


System  of  Passive  Education.  103 

viduality  becomes  free.  Neither  the  passive  nor  the  active 
system  understands  the  free  self-distinction  of  the  individual 
from  the  rest.  In  them,  to  be  an  individuality  is  a  betrayal 
of  the  very  idea  of  their  existence,  and  even  the  suspicion  of 
such  a  charge  suffices  utterly  and  mercilessly  to  destroy  the 
one  to  whom  it  refers.  Even  the  solitary  individuality  of  the 
despot  is  not  the  one-ness  of  free  individuality :  he  is  only 
an  example  of  his  kind ;  only  in  his  kind  is  he  singular. 
Nationality  rises  to  individuality  through  the  free  dialectic 
of  its  race,  wherein  it  dissolves  its  own  presupposition. 

§  183.  Nevertheless  individuality  must  always  proceed 
from  naturalness.  Esthetically  it  seeks  nature,  but  the  na- 
ture of  the  activity  itself,  in  order,  by  penetrating  it  with 
mind,  to  make  of  it  a  work  of  art ;  practically  it  seeks  it, 
partly  to  disdain  it  in  gloomy  resignation,  partly  to  enjoy  it 
in  excessive  sensual  ecstasy,  demoniacally  to  heighten  the 
extravagance  of  its  own  internal  feeling  in  wild  revels. 

— The  Germans  were  not  savage  in  the  common  signification 
of  this  term.  They  were  men  each  one  of  whom  constituted 
himself  willingly  a  centre  for  others,  or,  if  this  was  not  the 
case,  renounced  them  in  proud  self-sufficiency.  All  the  glory 
and  all  the  disgrace  of  our  race  lies  in  the  power  of  individu- 
alizing which  is  divinely  breathed  into  our  veins.  As  a  natu- 
ral element,  if  this  be  not  controlled,  it  degenerates  easily 
into  intractableness,  into  violence.  The  Germans  need  there- 
fore, in  order  to  be  educated,  severe  service,  the  imposition  of 
difficult  tasks  ;  and  for  this  reason  they  appropriate  to  them- 
selves, now  the  Roman  law,  now  the  Greek  philology,  now 
Gallic  usages,  &c.,  in  order  to  work  off  their  superfluous 
strength  in  such  opposition.  The  natural  reserve  of  the  Ger- 
man found  its  solvent  in  Christianity.  By  itself,  as  the  his- 
tory of  the  German  race  shows,  it  would  have  been  destroyed 
in  vain  distraction.  First  of  all,  the  German  race,  in  the  con- 
fidence of  its  immediate  consciousness,  ventured  forth  upon 
the  sea,  and  managed  the  ship  upon  its  waves  as  if  they  rode 
a  charger.— 

FIRST      GROUP. 
THE  SYSTEM  OF  PASSIVE  EDUCATION. 

§  184.  All  education  desires  to  free  man  from  his  finitude, 
to  make  him  ethical,  to  unite  him  with  God.  It  begins  there- 


104  Family  Education. 

fore  with  a  negative  relation  to  naturalness,  but  at  once  falls 
into  a  contradiction  of  its  aim,  which  is  to  convert  the  oppo- 
sition to  nature  into  a  natural  necessity.  Spirit  subjects  the 
individual  (1)  to  the  rule  of  the  family  as  naturally  spiritual ; 
(2)  to  the  rule  of  the  caste  as  to  a  principle  in  itself  spiritual, 
mediated  through  the  division  of  labor,  which  it  neverthe- 
less, through  its  power  of  being  inherited,  joins  again  to  the 
family ;  (3)  to  the  abstract  self-determination  of  the  monkish 
quietism,  which  turns  itself  away  as  well  from  the  famity  as 
from  work,  and  constitutes  this  flight  from  nature  and  his- 
tory, this  absolute  passivity,  into  an  educational  ideal. 

—We  shall  riot  here  enter  into  the  details  of  this  system, 
but  simply  endeavor  to  remove  from  their  differences  the 
want  of  clearness  which  is  generally  found  involved  in  any 
mention  of  them,  so  that  the  phrases  of  hierarchical  and 
theocratical  education  are  used  without  any  historical  accu- 
racy. 

I.  Family  Education. 

§  185.  The  Family,  as  the  organic  starting-point  of  all  edu- 
cation, makes  the  beginning.  The  nation  looks  upon  itself  as 
a  family.  Among  all  unorganized  people  education  is  family- 
education,  though  they  are  not  conscious  of  its  necessity. 
Identical  in  principle  with  these  people,  but  distinguished 
from  them  in  its  consciousness  of  it,  the  Chinese  nation,  in 
their  laws,  regulations,  and  customs,  have  constituted  the 
family  the  absolute  basis  of  their  life  and  the  only  principle 
of  their  education. 

§  180.  The  natural  element  of  the  family  is  found  in  mar- 
riage and  relationship;  the  spiritual,  in  love.  We  may  call 
the  nature  of  family  feeling  which  is  the  immediate  unity  of 
both  elements,  by  the  name  of  Piety.  In  so  far  as  this  ap- 
pears not  merely  as  a  substantial  feeling  but  at  the  same 
time  as  law,  there  arises  from  it  the  subordination  of  the 
abstract  obedience  of  the  woman  as  wife  to  the  husband,  of 
children  to  the  parents,  of  the  younger  children  to  the  elder. 
In  this  obedience  man  lirst  renounces  his  self-will  and  his 
natural  roughness ;  he  learns  to  master  his  passions,  and  to 
conduct  himself  with  deferential  gentleness. 

-When  the  principle  ruling  the  family  is  transferred  to 
political  relations,  there  arises  the  tvranny  of  the  Chines-- 


Caste  Education.  105 

state,  which  cannot  be  fully  treated  here.  We  tind  every- 
where in  it  an  analogical  relation  to  that  of  parents  and  chil- 
dren. In  China  the  ruler  is  the  father  and  mother  of  the 
country;  the  civil  officers  are  representatives  of  a  paternal 
authority,  &c.  It  follows  that  in  school  the  children  will  be 
ranked  according  to  their  age.  The  authority  of  parents  over 
children  is  according  to  the  principle  entirely  unconditional, 
but  in  actuality  very  mild.  The  abandonment  of  daughters 
by  the  poorest  classes  in  the  great  cities  is  not  objected  to, 
for  the  government  rears  the  children  in  orphan  asylums, 
where  they  are  cared  for  by  nurses  appointed  by  the  state.— 

§  187.  The  distinction  of  these  relations  which  are  condi- 
tioned by  nature  takes  on  the  external  shape  of  a  definite 
ceremonial,  the  learning  of  which  is  a  chief  element  of  edu- 
cation. In  conformity  with  the  naturalness  of  the  whole 
principle  all  crimes  against  it  are  punished  by  whipping, 
which  does  not  necessarily  entail  dishonor.  In  order  to  lead 
man  to  the  mastery  of  himself  and  to  obedience  to  those  who 
are  naturally  set  over  him,  education  develops  an  endless 
number  of  fragmentary  maxims  to  keep  attention  ever  watch- 
ful over  himself,  and  his  behavior  always  fenced  in  by  a  code 
of  prescriptions. 

—  \Vc  find  in  such  moral  sentences  the  substance  of  what 
is  called,  in  China,  Philosophy.— 

§  188.  The  theoretical  education  includes  Reading,  Writ- 
ing— i.e.  painting  the  letters  with  a  brush — Arithmetic,  and 
the  making  of  verses.  But  the  ability  to  do  these  things  is 
not  looked  at  as  means  of  culture  but  as  ends  in  themselves, 
and-  to  fit  one  therefore  for  the  undertaking  of  state  offices. 
The  Chinese  possess  formally  all  the  means  for  literary  cul- 
ture— printing,  libraries,  schools,  and  academies;  but  the 
worth  of  these  is  not  great.  Their  value  has  been  often  over- 
rated because  of  their  external  resemblance  to  'those  found 

among  us. 

1 1 .   Caste  Education. 

§  189.  The  members  of  the  Family  are  certainly  imme- 
diately distinguished  among  each  other  as  to  sex  and  age,  but 
this  difference  is  entirely  immaterial  as  far  as  the  nature  of 
their  employment  goes.  In  China,  therefore,  every  man  can 
attain  any  position ;  he  who  is  of  humblest  birth  in  the  great 


106  Caste  Education. 

state-family  can  climb  to  the  highest  honor.  But  the  pro- 
gress of  spirit  now  becomes  so  mediated  that  the  division  of 
labor  shall  be  made  the  principle  on  which  a  new  distinction 
shall  arise  in  the  family :  each  one  shall  perfect  himself  only 
in  that  labor  which  was  allotted  to  him  as  his  own  through 
his  birth  into  a  particular  family.  This  fatalism  (caste- 
distinction)  breaks  up  the  life,  but  increases  its  tension,  for 
spirit  works  on  the  one  hand  towards  the  deepening  of  its 
distinctions;  on  the  other,  towards  leading  them  back' into 
the  unity  which  the  natural  determining  directly  opposes. 

§  190.  The  chief  work  of  education  thus  consists  in  teach- 
ing each  one  the  rights  and  duties  of  his  caste  so  that  he 
shall  act  only  exactly  within  their  limits,  and  not  pollute  him- 
self by  passing  beyond  them.  As  the  family-state  concerns 
itself  with  fortifying  the  natural  distinction  by  a  far-reaching 
and  vigorous  ceremonial,  so  the  caste-state  must  do  the  same 
with  the  distinction  of  class.  A  painful  etiquette  becomes 
more  and  more  endless  in  its  requisitions  the  higher  the  caste, 
in  order  to  make  the  isolation  more  sharply  defined  and  more 
perceptible. 

— This  feature  penetrates  all  exclusively  caste-education. 
The  aristocracy  exiles  itself  on  this  account  from  its  native 
country,  speaks  a  foreign  language,  loves  its  literature,, 
adopts  foreign  customs,  lives  in  foreign  countries — in  Italy, 
Paris,  &c.  In  this  way  man  becomes  distinguished  from  oth- 
ers. But  that  man  should  strive  thus  to  distinguish  himself 
has  its  justification  in  the  mystery  of  his  birth,  and  this  is 
assuredly  always  the  principle  of  the  caste-state  in  which  it 
exists.  The  castes  lead  to  genealogical  records,  which  are 
of  the  greatest  importance  in  determining  the  destiny  of  the 
individual.  The  Brahmin  may  strike  down  one  of  a  lower 
caste  who  has  defiled  him  by  contact,  without  becoming 
thereby  liable  to  punishment ;  rather  would  he  be  to  blame 
if  he  did  not  commit  the  murder.  Thus  formerly  was  it  with 
the  officer  who  did  not  immediately  kill  the  citizen  or  the 
common  soldier  who  struck  him  a  blow,  &c.— 

§  191.  The  East  Indian  culture  is  far  deeper  and  richer  than 
the  Chinese.  The  theoretical  culture  includes  Reading,  Writ- 
ing, and  Arithmetic ;  but  these  are  subordinate,  as  mere 
means  for  the  higher  activities  of  Poetry,  Speculation,  Sci- 


Buddhistic  Education.  107 

ence,  and  Art.  The  practical  education  limits  itself  strictly 
by  the  lines  of  caste,  and  since  the  caste  system  constitutes  a 
whole  in  itself,  and  each  for  its  permanence  needs  the  others, 
it  cannot  forbear  giving  utterance  suggestively  to  what  is 
universally  human  in  the  free  soul,  in  a  multitude  of  fables 
(Hitopadesa)  and  apothegms  (sentences  of  Bartrihari).  Espe- 
cially for  the  education  of  princes  is  a  mirror  of  the  world 
sketched  out. 

— Xenophon's  Cyropedia  is  of  Greek  origin,  but  it  is  Indian 
in  its  thought. — 

III.  Monkish  Education. 

§  192.  Family  Education  demands  unconditional  obedience 
towards  parents  and  towards  all  who  stand  in  an  analogous 
position.  Caste  Education  demands  unconditional  obedience 
to  the  duties  of  the  caste.  The  family  punishes  by  whip- 
ping ;  the  caste,  by  excommunication,  by  loss  of  honor.  The 
opposition  to  nature  appears  in  both  systems  in  the  form  of 
a  rigid  ceremonial,  distinguishing  between  the  differences 
arising  from  nature.  The  family  as  well  as  the  caste  has 
within  it  a  manifold  fountain  of  activity,  but  it  has  also  just 
as  manifold  a  limitation  of  the  individual.  Spirit  is  forced, 
therefore,  to  turn  against  nature  in  general.  It  must  become 
indifferent  to  the  family.  But  it  must  also  oppose  history, 
and  the  fixed  distinctions  of  division  of  labor  as  necessitated 
by  nature.  It  must  become  indifferent  to  work  and  the  pleas- 
ure derived  from  it.  That  it  may  not  be  conditioned  either 
by  nature  or  by  history,  it  denies  both,  and  makes  its  action 
to  consist  in  producing  an  abstinence  from  all  activity. 

§  193.  Such  an  indifference  towards  nature  and  history 
produces  the  education  which  we  have  called  monkish. 
Those  who  support  this  sect  care  for  food,  clothing,  and 
shelter,  and  for  these  material  contributions,  as  the  laity, 
receive  in  return  from  those  who  live  this  contemplative 
life  the  spiritual  contribution  of  confidence  in  the  blessings 
which  wait  upon  ascetic  contemplation.  The  family  institu- 
tion as  well  as  the  institution  of  human  labor  is  subordi- 
nated to  abstract  isolation,  in  which  the  individual  lives  only 
for  the  purification  of  his  soul.  All  things  are  justified  by 
this  end.  Castes  are  found  no  more ;  only  those  are  bound 


108    Buddhistic  Education — System  of  Act  ice  Education. 

to  the  observance  of  a  special  ceremonial  who  as  nuns  or 
monks  subject  themselves  to  the  unconditional  obedience  to 
the  rules  of  the  cloister,  these  rules  solemnly  enjoining  on 
the  negative  side  celibacy  and  cessation  from  business,  and 
on  the  positive  side  prayer  and  perfection. 

§  194.  In  the  school  of  the  Chinese  Tao-tse,  and  in  the  com- 
mand to  the  Brahmin  after  he  has  established  a  family  to 
become  a  recluse,  we  find  the  transition  as  it  actually  exists 
to  the  Buddhistic  Quietism  which  has  covered  the  rocky 
heights  of  Thibet  with  countless  cloisters,  and  reared  the  peo- 
ple who  are  dependent  upon  it  into  a  childlike  amiability, 
into  a  contented  repose.  Art  and  Science  have  here  no  value 
in  themselves,  and  are  regarded  only  as  ministering  to  reli- 
gion. To  be  able  to  read  in  order  to  mutter  over  the  prayers 
is  desirable.  With  the  premeditated  effort  in  the  state  of  a 
monk  to  reduce  self  to  nothing  as  the  highest  good,  the  sys- 
tem of  passive  education  attains  its  highest  point.  But  the 
spirit  cannot  content  itself  in  this  abstract  and  dreamy  ab- 
sence of  all  action,  though  it  demands  a  high  stage  of  cul- 
ture, and  it  has  recourse  therefore  to  action,  partly  on  the 
positive  side  to  conquer  nature,  partly  to  double  its  own 
existence  in  making  history.  Inspired  with  affirmative  cour- 
age, it  descends  triumphantly  from  the  mountain  heights, 
and  fears  secularization  no  more. 

SECOND     GROUP. 
THE  SYSTEM   OP  ACTIVE  EDUCATION. 

§  195.  Active  Education  elevates  man  from  his  abstract 
subjection  to  the  family,  the  caste,  asceticism,  into  a  concrete 
activity  with  a  definite  aim  which  subjects  those  elements  as 
phases  of  its  mediation,  and  grants  to  each  individual  inde- 
pendence on  the  condition  of  his  identity  with  it.  These 
aims  are  the  military  state,  the  future  after  death,  and  in- 
dustry. There  is  always  an  element  of  nature  present  from 
which  the  activity  proceeds ;  but  this  no  longer  appears, 
like  the  family,  the  caste,  the  sensuous  egotism,  as  imme- 
diately belonging  to  the  individual,  but  as  something  outside 
of  himself  which  limits  him,  and,  as  his  future  life,  has  an 
internal  relation  to  him,  yet  is  essential  to  him  and  assigns 
to  him  the  object  of  his  activity.  The  Persian  has  as  an 


Military  Education.  109 

object  of  conquest,  other  nations;  the  Egyptian,  death;  the 
Phoenician,  the  sea. 

\.  Military  Education. 

§  196.  That  education  which  would  emancipate  a  nation 
from  the  passivity  of  abstraction  must  throw  it  into  the  midst 
of  an  historical  activity.  A  nation  finds  not  its  actual  limits 
in  its  locality :  it  can  forsake  this  and  wander  far  away  from 
it.  Its  true  limit  is  made  by  another  nation.  The  nation 
which  knows  itself  to  be  actual,  turns  itself  therefore  against 
other  nations  in  order  to  subject  them  and  to  reduce  them 
to  the  condition  of  mere  accidents  of  itself.  It  begins  a 
system  of  conquest  which  has  in  itself  no  limitations,  but 
goes  from  one  nation  to  another,  and  extends  its  evil  course 
indefinitely.  The  final  result  of  this  attack  is  that  it  finds 
itself  attacked  and  conquered. 

— The  early  history  of  the  Persian  is  twofold :  the  patriar- 
chal in  the  high  valleys  of  Iran,  and  the  religio -hierarchical 
among  the  Medes.  We  find  under  these  circumstances  a 
repetition  of  the  principal  characteristics  of  the  Chinese,  In- 
dian, and  Buddhist  educations.  In  ancient  Zend  there  were 
also  castes.  Among  the  Persians  themselves,  as  they  de- 
scended from  their  mountains  to  the  conquest  of  other 
nations,  there  was  properly  only  a  military  nobility.  The 
priesthood  was  subjected  to  the  royal  power  which  repre- 
sented the  absolute  power  of  actuality .  Of  the  Persian  kings, 
Cyrus  attacked  Western  Asia;  Cambyses,  Africa;  Darius 
and  Xerxes,  Europe ;  until  the  reaction  of  the  spiritually 
higher  nationality  did  not  content  itself  with  self-preserva- 
tion, but  under  the  Macedonian  Alexander  made  the  attack 
on  Persia  itself.— 

§  197.  Education  enjoined  upon  the  Persians  (1)  to  speak 
the  truth ;  (2)  to  learn  to  ride  and  to  use  the  bow  and 
arrow.  There  is  implied  in  the  first  command  a  recognition 
of  actuality,  the  negation  of  all  dreamy  absorption,  of  all 
fantastical  indetermination ;  and  in  this  light  the  Persian,  in 
distinction  from  the  Hindoo,  appears  to  be  considerate  and 
reasonable.  In  the  second  command  is  implied  warlike  prac- 
tice, but  not  that  of  the  nomadic  tribes.  The  Persian  fights 
on  horseback,  and  thus  appears  in  distinction  from  the  Indian 


110  Priestly  Education. 

hermit  seclusion  and  the  quietism  of  the  Lamas  as  restless 
and  in  constant  motion. 

-The  Family  increases  in  value  as  it  rears  a  large  number 
of  warriors.  Many  children  were  a  blessing.  The  king  of 
Persia  gave  a  premium  for  all  children  over  a  certain  num- 
ber. Nations  were  drawn  in  as  nations  by  war ;  hence  the 
immense  multitude  of  a  Persian  army.  Everything — family, 
business,  possessions — must  be  regardlessly  sacrificed  to  the 
one  aim  of  war.  Education,  therefore,  cultivated  an  uncon- 
ditional, all-embracing  obedience  to  the  king,  and  the  slight- 
est inclination  to  assert  an  individual  independence  was  high 
treason  and  was  punished  with  death.  In  China,  on  the  con- 
trary, duty  to  the  family  is  paramount  to  duty  to  the  state, 
or  rather  is  itself  duty  to  the  state.  The  civil  officer  who 
mourns  the  loss  of  one  of  his  family  is  released  during  the 
period  of  mourning  from  the  duties  of  his  function. — 

§  198.  The  theoretical  education,  which  was  limited  to  read- 
ing, writing,  and  to  instruction,  was,  in  the  usages  of  culture, 
in  the  hands  of  the  Magians,  the  number  of  whom  was  esti- 
mated at  eighty  thousand,  and  who  themselves  had  enjoyed 
the  advantages  of  a  careful  education,  as  is  shown  by  t  their 
gradation  into  Herbeds,  Moheds,  and  Destur-Moheds  ;  i.e.  into 
apprentices,  journeymen,  and  masters.  The  very  fundamen- 
tal idea  of  their  religion  was  military ;  it  demanded  of  men 
to  fight  on  the  side  of  the  king  of  light,  and  guard  against  the 
prince  of  darkness  and  evil.  It  gave  to  him  thus  the  honor 
of  a  free  position  between  the  world- moving  powers  and 
the  possibility  of  a  self-creative  destiny,  by  which  means 
vigor  and  chivalrous  feeling  were  developed.  Religion  trained 
the  activity  of  man  into  actualization  on  this  planet,  increas- 
ing by  its  means  the  dominion  of  the  good,  by  purifying  the 
water,  by  planting  trees,  by  extirpating  troublesome  wild 
beasts.  Thus  it  increased  bodily  comfort,  and  no  longer,  like 
the  monk,  treated  this  as  a  mere  negative. 

II.   Priestly  Education. 

§  199.  War  has  in  death  its  force.  It  produces  this,  and 
by  its  means  decides  who  shall  serve  and  who  obey.  But  the 
nation  that  finds  its  activity  in  war,  though  it  makes  death 
its  absolute  means,  yet  finds  its  own  limit  in  death.  Other 


Priestly  Education.  Ill 

• 
nations   are  only  its  boundaries,  which  it  can  overpass  in 

lighting  with  and  conquering  them.  But  death  itself  it  can 
never  escape,  whether  it  come  in  the  sands  of  the  desert — 
which  buried  for  Cambyses  an  army  which  he  sent  to  the 
oracle  of  the  Libyan  Ammon — or  in  the  sea,  that  scorns  the 
rod  of  the  angry  despot,  or  by  the  sword  of  the  freeman  who 
guards  his  household  gods.  On  this  account,  that  people 
stands  higher  that  in  the  midst  of  life  reflects  on  death,  or 
rather  lives  for  it.  The  education  of  such  a  nation  must  be 
priestly  because  death  is  the  means  of  the  transition  to  the 
future  life,  and  consequently  equivalent  to  a  new  birth,  and 
becomes  a  religious  act.  Neither  the  family-state,  nor  the 
caste-state,  nor  the  monkish  nor  military-state,  are  hierar- 
chies in  the  sense  that  the  leading  of  the  national  life  by  a 
priesthood  produces.  But  in  Egypt  this  was  actually  the 
case,  because  the  chief  educational  tribunal  was  the  death- 
court  which  concerned  only  the  dead,  in  awarding  to  them  or 
denying  them  the  honor  of  burial  as  the  result  of  their  whole 
life,  but  in  its  award  affected  also  the  honor  of  the  surviv- 
ing family. 

§  200.  General  education  here  limited  itself  to  imparting  the 
ability  to  read,  write,  and  calculate.  Special  education  con- 
sisted properly  only  in  an  habitual  living  into  a  definite  busi- 
ness within  the  circle  of  the  Family.  In  this  fruitful  and  warm 
land  the  expense  of  supporting  children  was  very  small.  The 
division  into  classes  was  without  the  cruel  features  of  the  In- 
dian civilization,  and  life  itself  in  the  narrow  Nile  valley  was 
very  social,  very  rich,  very  full  of  eating  and  drinking,  while 
the  familiarity  with  death  heightened  the  force  of  enjoyment. 
In  a  stricter  sense  only,  the  warriors,  the  priests,  and  the  kings, 
had,  properly  speaking,  an  education.  The  aim  of  life,  which 
was  to  determine  in  death  its  eternal  future,  to  secure  for 
itself  a  passage  into  the  still  kingdom  of  Amenth,  manifested 
itself  externally  in  the  care  which  they  expended  on  the  pre- 
servation of  the  dead  shell  of  the  immortal  soul,  and  on  this 
account  worked  itself  out  in  building  tombs  which  should 
last  for  ever.  The  Chinese  builds  a  wall  to  secure  his  family- 
state  from  attack  ;  the  Hindoo  builds  pagodas  for  his  gods ; 
the  Buddhist  erects  for  himself  monastic  cells ;  the  Persian 


112  Industrial  Education. 

constructs  in  Persepolis  the  tomb  of  his  kings,  where  they 
may  retire  in  the  evening  of  their  lives  after  they  have  rioted 
in  Ecbatana,  Babylon,  and  Susa ;  but  the  Egyptian  builds 
his  own  tomb,  and  carries  on  war  only  to  protect  it. 

III.    Industrial  Education . 

§  201.  The  system  of  active  education  was  to  find  its  solu- 
tion in  a  nation  which  wandered  from  the  coast  of  the  Red 
Sea  to  the  foot  of  the  Lebanon  mountains  on  the  Mediterra- 
nean, and  ventured  forth  upon  the  sea  which  before  that  time 
all  nations  had  avoided  as  a  dangerous  and  destructive  ele- 
ment. The  Phoanician  was  industrial,  and  needed  markets 
where  he  could  dispose  of  the  products  of  his  skill.  But 
while  he  sought  for  them  he  disdained  neither  force  nor  de- 
ceit; he  planted  colonies;  he  stipulated  that  he  should  have 
in  the  cities  of  other  nations  a  portion  for  himself;  he  urged 
the  nations  to  adopt  his  pleasures,  and  insensibly  introduced 
among  them  his  culture  and  even  his  religion.  The  educa- 
tion of  such  a  nation  must  have  seemed  profane,  because  it 
fostered  indifference  towards  family  and  one's  native  land, 
and  made  the  restless  and  passionate  activity  subservient  to 
gain.  The  understanding  and  usefulness  rose  to  a  higher 
dignity. 

§  202.  Of  the  education  of  the  Pho3nicians  we  know  only 
so  much  as  to  enable  us  to  conclude  that  it  was  certainly  va- 
rious and  extensive :  among  the  Carthaginians,  at  least,  that 
their  children  were  practised  in  reading,  writing,  and  arith- 
metic, in  religious  duties ;  secondly,  in  a  trade ;  and,  finally, 
in  the  use  of  arms,  is  not  improbable.  Commerce  became 
with  the  Pho3nicians  a  trade,  the  egotism  of  which  makes 
men  dare  to  plough  the  inhospitable  sea,  and  to  penetrate 
eagerly  the  horror  of  its  vast  distances,  but  yet  to  conceal 
from  other  nations  their  discoveries  and  to  wrap  them  in  a 
veil  of  fable. 

— It  is  a  beautiful  testimony  to  the  disposition  of  the 
Greeks,  that  Plato  and  others  assign  as  a  cause  of  the  low 
state  of  Arithmetic  and  Mathematics  among  the  Phoenicians 
and  Egyptians  the  want  of  a  free  and  disinterested  seizing 
of  them. — 


Individual  Education — Esthetic  Education.         113 

THIRD     GROUP. 
THE  SYSTEM  OF  INDIVIDUAL  EDUCATION. 

§  203.  One-sided  passivity  as  well  as  one-sided  activity  is 
subsumed  under  Individuality,  which  makes  itself  into  its 
own  end  and  aim.  The  Phoenician  made  gain  his  aim ;  Tiis 
activity  was  of  a  utilistic  character.  Individuality  as  a  peda- 
gogical principle  is  indeed  egotistic  in  so  far  as  it  endeavors 
to  achieve  its  own  peculiarity,  but  it  is  at  the  same  time 
noble.  It  desires  not  to  have  but  to  be.  Individuality  also 
begins  as  natural,  but  it  elevates  nature  by  means  of  art  to 
ideality.  The  solution  of  beauty  is  found  in  culture,  since 
this  renounces  the  charm  of  appearance  for  the  knowledge 
of  the  True.  The  aesthetic  individuality  is  followed  by  the 
practical,  which  has  indeed  no  natural  basis,  but  proceeds 
from  an  artificial  basis  as  a  state  formed  for  a  place  of  refuge. 
In  order  internally  to  create  a  unity  in  this,  is  framed  a 
definite  code  of  laws ;  in  order  externally  to  assure  it,  the 
invincible  warrior  is  demanded.  Education  is  therefore,  more 
exactly  speaking,  juristic  and  military  practice.  The  moral- 
ity of  the  state  is  loosened  as  it  reduces  into  its  mechanism 
one  nation  after  another,  until  the  individuality,  become  dae- 
monic, makes  its  war-hardened  legions  tremble  with  weak- 
ness. We  characterize  this  individuality  as  daemonic  because 
it  desires  recognition  simply  for  its  own  sake.  Not  for  its 
beauty  and  culture,  not  for  its  knowledge  of  business  and  its 
bravery,  only  for  its  peculiarity  as  such  does  it  claim  value, 
and  in  the  effort  to  secure  this  it  is  ready  to  hazard  life  itself. 
In  its  naturally-growing  existence  this  individuality  is  deep, 
but  at  the  same  time  without  self-limit.  The  nations  educate 
themselves  to  this  individuality  when  they  destroy  the  world 
of  Roman  world — that  of  self-limit  and  balance — which  they 
find. 

I.    Esthetic  Education. 

§  204.  The  system  of  individual  education  begins  with  the 
transfiguration  of  the  immediate  individuality  into  beauty. 
On  the  side  of  nature  this  system  is  passion,  for  individuality 
is  given  through  nature;  but  on  the  side  of  spirit  it  is  active, 
for  spirit  must  determine  itself  to  restrain  its  measure  as  the 
essence  of  beauty. 

9 


114  ^Esthetic  Education. 

§  205.  Here  the  individual  is  of  value  only  in  so  far  as  lie 
is  beautiful.  At  first  beauty  is  apprehended  as  natural,  but 
then  it  is  carried  over  into  the  realm  of  spirit,  and  the 
Good  is  posited  as  identical  with  the  Beautiful.  The  ideal 
of  aesthetic  education  remains  always  that  there  shall  be  also 
an  external  unity  of  the  Good  with  the  Beautiful,  of  Spirit 
with  Nature. 

— We  cannot  here  give  in  detail  the  history  of  Greek  Edu- 
cation. It  is  the  best  known  among  us,  and  the  literature  in 
which  it  is  worked  out  is  very  widely  spread.  Among  the 
common  abridged  accounts  we  mention  here  only  the  works 
of  Jacobs,  of  Cramer  &  Bekker's  "  Charinomos."  We  must 
content  ourselves  with  mentioning  the  turning-points  which 
follow  from  the  nature  of  the  principle.— 

§  206.  Culture  was  in  Greece  thoroughly  national.  Educa- 
tion gave  to  the  individual  the  consciousness  that  he  was  a 
Greek  and  no  barbarian,. a  free  man  and  so  subject  only  to 
the  laws  of  the  state,  and  not  to  the  caprice  of  any  one  per- 
son. Thus  the  nationality  was  freed  at  once  from  the  abstract 
unity  of  the  family  and  from  the  abstract  distinction  of  caste, 
while  it  appeared  with  the  manifold  talents  of  individuals  of 
different  races.  Thus  the  Dorian  race  held  as  essential,  gym- 
nastics; the  JEolians,  music ;  the  Ionics,. poetry.  TheJEolian 
individuality  was  subsumed  in  the  history  of  the  two  others, 
so  that  these  had  to  proceed  in  their  development  with  an 
internal  antagonism.  The  education  of  the  Dorian  race  was 
national  education  in  the  fullest  sense  of  the  word;  in  it  the 
education  of  all  was  the  same,  and  was  open  to  all,  even 
including  the  young  women ;  among  the  Ionic  race  it  was  also 
in  its  content  truly  national,  but  in  its  form  it  was  varied  and 
unlike,  and,  for  those  belonging  to  various  great  families, 
private.  The  former,  reproducing  the  Oriental  phase  of  ab- 
stract unity,  educated  all  in  one  mould ;  the  latter  was  the 
nursery  of  particular  individualities. 

§  207.  (1)  Education  in  the  heroic  age,  without  any  syste- 
matic arrangement  on  the  subject,  left  each  one  perfectly 
free.  The  people  related  the  histories  of  the  adventures  of 
others,  and  through  their  own  gave  material  to  others  again 
to  relate  stories  of  them. 

— The  Greeks  began  where  the  last  stage  of  the  active 


^Esthetic  Education.  115 

system  of  education  ended — with  piracy  and  the  seizure  of 
women.  Swimming  was  a  universal  practice  among  the  sea- 
dwelling  Greeks,  just  as  in  England — the  mistress  of  the 
ocean — rowing  is  the  most  prominent  exercise  among  the 
young  men,  and  public  regattas  are  held. — 

§  208.  (2)  In  the  period  of  state-culture  proper,  education 
developed  itself  systematically ;  and  gymnastics,  music,  and 
grammatics,  or  literary  culture,  constituted  the  general  peda- 
gogical elements. 

§  209.  Gymnastics  aimed  not  alone  to  render  the  body 
strong  and  agile,  but,  far  more,  to  produce  in  it  a  noble  car- 
riage, a  dignified  and  graceful  manner  of  appearance.  Each 
one  fashioned  his  body  into  a  living,  divine  statue,  and  in  the 
public  games  the  nation  crowned  the  victor. 

-Their  love  of  beautiful  boys  is  explicable  not  merely  by 
their  interest  in  beautiful  forms,  but  especially  by  their 
interest  in  individuality.  The  low  condition  of  the  women 
could  not  lie  at  the  foundation  of  it,  for  among  the  Spartans 
they  were  educated  as  nearly  as  possible  like  the  men,  and 
yet  among  them  and  the  Cretans  the  love  of  boys  was  recog- 
nized in  their  legislation.  To  be  without  a  beloved  (dfayc), 
or  a  lover  (e&Tn^xac),  was  among  them  considered  as  dis- 
graceful as  the  degradation  of  the  love  by  unchastity  was 
contemptible.  What  charm  was  there,  then,  in  love  ?  Mani- 
festly only  beauty  and  culture.  But  that  a  person  should  be 
attracted  by  one  and  not  by  another  can  be  accounted  for 
only  by  the  peculiar  character,  and  in  so  far  the  boy-love 
and  the  man-friendship  which  sprang  from  it,  among  the 
Greeks,  are  very  characteristic  and  noteworthy  phenomena. — 

§  210.  It  was  the  task  of  Music,  by  its  rhythm  and  meas- 
ure, to  fill  the  soul  with  well-proportioned  harmony.  So 
highly  did  the  Greeks  prize  music,  and  so  variously  did  they 
practise  it,  that  to  be  a  musical  man  meant  the  same  with 
them  as  to  be  a  cultivated  man  with  us.  Education  in  this 
respect  was  very  painstaking,  inasmuch  as  music  exercises  a 
very  powerful  influence  in  developing  discreet  behavior  and 
self-possession  into  a  graceful  naturalness. 

—Among  the  Greeks  we  find  an  unrestricted  delight  in 
nature — a  listening  to  her  manifestations,  the  tone  of  which 
betrays  the  subjectivity  of  things  as  subjectivity.  In  com- 


116  ^Esthetic  Education. 

parison  with  this  tender  sympathy  with  nature  of  the  Greeks 
—who  heard  in  the  murmur  of  the  fountains,  in  the  dashing 
of  the  waves,  in  the  rustling  of  the  trees,  and  in  the  cry  of 
animals,  the  voice  of  divine  personality — the  sight  and  hear- 
ing of  the  Eastern  nations  for  nature  is  dull. — 

§  211.  The  stringed  instrument,  the  cithern,  was  preferred- 
by  the  Greeks  to  all  wind  instruments  because  it  was  not  ex- 
citing, and  allowed  the  accompaniment  of  recitation  or  song, 
i.e.  the  contemporaneous  activity  of  the  spirit  in  poetry. 
Flute-playing  was  first  brought  from  Asia  Minor  after  the 
victorius  progress  of  the  Persian  war,  and  was  especially  cul- 
tivated in  Thebes.  They  sought  in  vain  afterwards  to  oppose 
the  wild  excitement  raised  by  its  influence. 

§  212.  Grammar  comprehended  Letters  (?y>c£/^ara),  i.e.  the 
elements  of  literary  culture,  reading  and  writing.  Much 
attention  was  given  to  correct  expression.  The  Fables  of 
JEsop,  the  Iliad,  and  the  Odyssey,  and  later  the  tragic  poets, 
were  read,  and  partly  learned  by  heart.  The  orators  borrowed 
from  them  often  the  ornament  of  their  commonplace  remarks. 

§  213.  (3)  The  internal  growth  of  what  was  peculiar  to  the 
Grecian  State  came  to  an  end  with  the  war  for  the  Hegemony. 
Its  dissolution  began,  and  the  philosophical  period  followed 
the  political.  The  beautiful  ethical  life  was  resolved  into 
thoughts  of  the  True,  Good,  and  Beautiful.  Individuality 
turned  more  towards  the  internal,  and  undertook  to  subject 
freedom,  the  existing  regulations,  laws  and  customs,  to  the 
criticism  of  reason  as  to  whether  these  were  in  and  for  them- 
selves universal  and  necessary.  The  Sophists,  as  teachers  of 
Grammar,  Rhetoric,  and  Philosophy,  undertook  to  extend 
the  cultivation  of  Reflection ;  and  this  introduced  instability 
in  the  place  of  the  immediate  fixed  state  of  moral  customs. 
Among  the  women,  the  Jletcerce  undertook  the  same  revo- 
lution ;  in  the  place  of  the  norvta.  pyTyp  appeared  the  beauty, 
who  isolated  herself  in  the  consciousness  of  her  charms  and 
in  the  perfection  of  her  varied  culture,  and  exhibited  herself 
to  the  public  admiration.  The  tendency  to  idiosyncrasy  often 
approached  wilfulness,  caprice  and  whimsicality,  and  opposi- 
tion to  the  national  moral  sense.  A  Diogenes  in  a  tub  became 
possible;  the  soulless  but  graceful  frivolity  of  an  Alcibiades 
charmed,  even  though  it  was  externally  condemned ;  a  Socra- 


c  Education.  117 


tes  completed  the  break  in  consciousness,  and  urged  upon  the 
system  of  the  old  morality  the  pregnant  question,  whether  Vir- 
tue could  be  taught?  Socrates  worked  as  a  philosopher  who 
was  to  educate.  Pythagoras  had  imposed  upon  his  pupils  the 
abstraction  of  a  common,  exactly-defined  manner  of  living. 
Socrates,  on  the  contrary,  freed  his  disciples  —  in  general,  those 
who  had  intercourse  with  him  —  leading  them  to  the  con- 
sciousness of  their  own  individuality.  He  revolutionized  the 
youth  in  that  he  taught  them,  instead  of  a  thoughtless  obe- 
dience to  moral  customs,  to  seek  to  comprehend  their  pur- 
pose in  the  world,  and  to  rule  their  actions  according  to  it. 
Outwardly  he  conformed  in  politics,  and  in  war  as  at  Mara- 
thon; but  in  the  direction  of  his  teaching  he  was  subjective 
and  modern. 

§  214.  This  idea,  that  Virtue  could  be  taught,  was  realized 
especially  by  Plato  and  Aristotle  ;  the  former  inclining  to 
Dorianism,  the  latter  holding  to  the  principle  of  individuality 
in  nearly  the  modern  sense.  As  regards  the  pedagogical 
means  —  Gymnastics,  Music,  and  Grammar  —  both  philoso- 
phers entirely  agreed.  But,  in  the  seizing  of  the  pedagogical 
development  in  general,  Plato  asserted  that  the  education  of 
the  individual  belonged  to  the  state  alone,  because  the  indi- 
vidual was  to  act  wholly  in  the  state.  On  the  other  hand,  Aris- 
totle also  holds  that  the  state  should  conduct  the  education  of 
its  citizens,  and  that  the  individual  should  be  trained  for  the 
interest  of  the  state  ;  but  he  recognizes  also  the  family,  and 
the  peculiarity  of  the  individual,  as  positive  powers,  to  which 
the  state  must  accord  relative  freedom.  Plato  sacrificed  the 
family  to  the  state,  and  must  therefore  have  sacred  mar- 
riages, nurseries,  and  common  and  public  educational  insti- 
tutions. Each  one  shall  do  only  that  which  he  is  fitted  to  do, 
and  shall  work  at  this  only  for  the  sake  of  perfecting  it:  to 
what  he  shall  direct  his  energies,  and  in  what  he  shall  be 
instructed,  shall  be  determined  by  the  government,  and  the 
individuality  consequently  is  not  left  free.  Aristotle  also 
will  have  for  all  the  citizens  the  same  education,  which  shall 
be  common  and  public;  but  he  allows,  at  the  same  time,  an 
independence  to  the  family  and  self-determination  to  the  in- 
dividual, so  that  a  sphere  of  private  life  presents  itself  within 


118  Esthetic  Education. 

the  state :  a  difference  by  means  of  which  a  much  broader 
sway  of  individuality  is  possible. 

— These  two  philosophers  have  come  to  represent  two  very 
different  directions  in  Pedagogics,  which  at  intervals,  in  cer- 
tain stages  of  culture,  reappear — the  tyrannical  guardianship 
of  the  state  which  assumes  the  work  of  education,  tyrannical 
to  the  individual,  and  the  free  development  of  the  liberal 
state-education,  in  opposition  to  idiosyncrasy  and  fate. 

§  215.  The  principle  of  aesthetic  individuality  reaches  its 
highest  manifestation  when  the  individual, in  the  decay  of  pub- 
lic life,  in  the  disappearance  of  all  beautiful  morality,  iso- 
lates himself,  and  seeks  to  gain  in  his  isolation  such  strength 
that  he  can  bear  the  changes  of  external  history  around  him 
with  composure — "ataraxy."  The  Stoics  sought  to  attain  this 
end  by  turning  their  attention  inward  into  pure  internality, 
and  thus,  by  preserving  the  self-determination  of  abstract 
thinking  and  willing,  maintaining  an  identity  with  them- 
selves :  the  Epicureans  endeavored  to  do  the  same,  with  this 
difference  however,  that  they  strove  after  a  positive  satisfac- 
tion of  the  senses  by  filling  them  with  concrete  pleasurable 
sensations.  As  a  consequence  of  this,  the  Stoics  isolated 
themselves  in  order  to  maintain  themselves  in  the  exclusive- 
ness  of  their  internal  unconditioned  relation  to  themselves, 
while  the  Epicureans  lived  in  companies,  because  they 
achieved  the  reality  of  their  pleasure  -  seeking  principle 
through  harmony  of  feeling  and  through  the  sweetness  of 
friendship.  In  so  far  the  Epicureans  were  Greeks  and  the 
Stoics  Romans.  With  both,  however,  the  beauty  of  manifes- 
tation was  secondary  to  the  immobility  of  the  inner  feeling. 
The  plastic  attainment  of  the  Good  and  the  Beautiful  was 
cancelled  in  the  abstraction  of  thinking  and  feeling.  This 
was  the  advent  of  the  Roman  principle  among  the  Greeks. 

§  216.  The  pedagogical  significance  of  Stoicism  and  Epicu- 
reanism consists  in  this,  that,  after  the  moral  life  in  public 
and  in  private  were  sundered  from  each  other,  the  individual 
began  to  educate  himself,  through  philosophical  culture,  into 
stability  of  character,  for  which  reason  the  Roman  emperors 
particularly  disliked  the  Stoics.  At  many  times,  a  resigna- 
tion to  the  Stoic  philosophy  was  sufficient  to  make  one  sus- 


Practical  Education.  119 

peoted.  But,  at  last,  the  noble  emperor,  in  order  to  win  him- 
self a  hold  in  the  chaos  of  things,  was  forced  himself  to 
become  a  Stoic  and  to  flee  to  the  inaccessible  stillness  of  the 
self-thinking  activity  and  the  self-moving  will.  Stoics  and 
Epicureans  had  both  what  we  call  an  ideal.  The  Stoics  used 
the  expression  "kingdom";  as  Horace  says,  sarcastically, 
"  Sapiens  rex  est  nisi — pituita  molesta  est" 

II.  Practical  Education. 

§  217.  The  truth  of  the  solution  of  the  beautiful  individu- 
ality is  the  promise  of  the  activity  conformable  to  its  pur- 
pose [i.e.  teleological  activity],  which  on  the  one  hand  con- 
siders carefully  end  and  means,  and  on  the  other  hand  seeks 
to  realize  the  end  through  the  corresponding  means,  and  in 
this  deed  subjects  mere  beauty  of  form.  The  practical  indi- 
viduality is  therefore  externally  conditioned,  since  it  is  not 
its  own  end  like  the  Beautiful,  whether  Stoical  or  Epicurean, 
but  has  an  end,  and  finds  its  satisfaction  not  so  much  in  this 
after  it  is  attained  as  in  the  striving  for  its  attainment. 

§  218.  The  education  of  this  system  begins  with  very  great 
simplicity.  But  after  it  has  attained  its  object,  it  abandons 
itself  to  using  the  results  of  (Esthetic  culture  as.  a  recreation 
without  any  specific  object.  What  was  to  the  Greeks  a  real 
delight  in  the  Beautiful  became  therefore  with  the  Romans 
simply  an  aesthetic  amusement,  and  as  such  must  finally  be 
wearisome.  The  earnestness  of  individuality  made  itself  in 
mysticism  into  a  new  aim,  which  was  distinguished  from  the 
original  one  in  that  it  concealed  in  itself  a  mystery  and  ex- 
acted a  theoretically  lesthetic  practice. 

§  219.  (1)  The  first  epoch  of  Roman  education,  as  properly 
Roman,  was  the  juristic-military  education  of  the  republic. 
The  end  and  aim  of  the  Roman  was  Rome;  and  Rome,  as 
from  the  beginning  an  eclectic  state,  could  endure  only  while 
its  laws  and  external  politics  were  conformable  to  some  end. 
It  bore  the  same  contradiction  within  itself  as  in  its  external 
attitude.  This  forced  it  into  robbery,  and  the  plebeians  were 
related  to  the  patricians  in  the  same  way,  for  they  robbed 
them  gradually  of  all  their  privileges.  On  this  account 
education  directed  itself  partlV  to  giving  a  knowledge  of  the 
Law,  partly  to  communicating  a  capacity  for  war.  The  boys 


120  Practical  Education. 

were  obliged-  to  commit  to  memory  and  recite  the  laws  of  the 
twelve  tables,  and  all  the  youths  were  subject  to  military 
service.  The  Roman  possessed  no  individuality  of  native 
growth,  but  one  mediated  through  the  intermingling  of 
various  fugitives,  which  developed  a  very  great  energy. 
Hence  from  the  first  he  was  attentive  to  himself,  he  watched 
jealously  over  the  limits  of  his  rights  and  the  rights  of  oth- 
ers, measured  his  strength,  moderated  himself,  and  constant- 
ly guarded  himself.  In  contrast  with  the  careless  cheerful- 
ness of  the  Greeks,  he  therefore  appears  gloomy. 

— The  Latin  tongue  is  crowded  with  expressions  which 
paint  presence  of  mind,  effort  at  reflection,  a  critical  attitude 
of  mind,  the  importance  of  personal  control :  as  gramtas  mo- 
rum,  sui  compos  esse,  sibi  constare,  austeritas,  mr  strenuus, 
mr  probus,  mtam  Jionestam  gerere,  sibimet  ipse  imperare,  &c. 
The  Etruscan  element  imparted  to  this  earnestness  an  espe- 
cially solemn  character.  The  Roman  was  no  more,  like  the 
Greek,  unembarrassed  at  naturalness.  He  was  ashamed  of  na- 
kedness ;  verecundia,  pudor,  were  genuinely  Roman.  Vitam 
prceferre  pudori  was  shameful.  On  the  contrary,  the  Greek 
gave  to  Greeks  a  festival  in  exhibiting  the  splendor  of  his 
naked  body.,  and  the  inhabitants  of  Crotona  erected  a  statue 
to  Philip  only  because  he  was  so  perfectly  beautiful.  Simply 
to  be  beautiful,  only  beautiful,  was  enough  for  the  Greek. 
But  a  Roman,  in  order  to  be' recognized,  must  have  done 
something  for  Rome :  se  ~bene  de  republica  mereri. — 

§"220.  In  the  first  education  of  children  the  agency  of  the 
mother  is  especially  influential,  so  that  woman  with  the 
Romans  took  generally  a  more  moral,  a  higher,  and  a  freer 
position.  It  is  worthy  of  remark  that  while,  as  the  beautiful, 
she  set  the  Greeks  at  variance,  among  the  Romans,  through 
her  ethical  authority,  she  acted  as  reconciler. 

§  221.  The  mother  of  the  Roman  helped  to  form  his  cha- 
racter; the  father  undertook  the  work  of  instruction.  When 
in  his  fifteenth  year  the  boy  exchanged  the  toga  prcetextata 
for  the  toga  mrilis,  he  was  usually  sent  to  some  relative,  or 
to  some  jurist,  as  his  guardian,  to  learn  thoroughly,  under 
his  guidance,  of  the  laws  and  of  the  state ;  with  the  seven- 
teenth began  military  service.  Air  education  was  for  a  long 
time  entirely  a  private  affair.  On  account  of  the  necessity  of 


Practical  Education.  121 

a  mechanical  unity  in  work  which  war  demand^  the  greatest 
stress  was  laid  upon  obedience.  In  its  restricted  sense  edu- 
cation comprised  Reading,  Writing,  and  Arithmetic ;  the  last 
being,  on  account  of  its  usefulness,  more  esteemed  by  the 
Romans  than  by  the  Greeks,  who  gave  more  time  to  Geome- 
try. The  schools,  very  characteristically,  were  called  Ludi> 
because  their  work  was,  in  distinction  from  other  practice^ 
regarded  simply  as  a  recreation,  as  play. 

—The  Roman  recognized  with  pride  this  distinction  be- 
tween the  Greek  and  himself;  Cicero's  Introduction  to  his 
Essay  on  Oratory  expresses  it.  To  be  practical  was  always 
the  effort  of  the  reflective  character  of  the  Romans,  which 
was  always  placing  new  ends  and  seeking  the  means  for 
their  attainment;  which  loved  moderation,  not  to  secure 
beauty  thereby,  but  respected  it  as  a  means  for  a  happy  suc- 
cess (medium  tenuere  beati);  which  did  not  possess  serene 
self-limitation,  or  fftoypoauvq,  but  calculation  quid  valeant 
humeri,  quid  f err e  recu.sent;  but  which,  in  general,  went 
far  beyond  the  Greeks  in  persistency  of  will,  in  constantia 
animi.  The  schools  were  at  first  held  publicly  in  shops ; 
hence  the  name  trimum.  Very  significant  for  the  Roman 
is  the  predicate  which  lie  conferred  upon  theoretical  subjects 
when  he  called  them  artes  bonce,  optima,  liberates,  ingtnucey 
&c.,  and  brought  forth  the  practical  element  in  them.— 

§  222.  (2)  But  the  practical  education  could  no  longer  keep 
its  ground  after  it  had  become  acquainted  with  the  aesthetic. 
The  conquest  of  Greece,  Asia  Minor,  and  Egypt,  made  neces- 
sary, in  a  practical  point  of  view,  the  acquisition  of  the  Gre- 
cian tongue,  so  that  these  lands,  so  permeated  with  Grecian 
culture,  might  be  thoroughly  ruled.  The  Roman  of  family 
and  property,  therefore,  took  into  his  service  Greek  nurses 
and  teachers  who  should  give  to  his  children,  from  their  ear- 
liest years,  Greek  culture.  It  is,  in  the  history  of  education, 
a  great  evil  when  a  nation  undertakes  to  teach  a  foreign 
tongue  to  its  youth.  Then  the  necessity  of  trade  with  the 
Greeks  caused  the  study  of  Rhetoric,  so  that  not  only  in  the 
deliberations  of  the  senate  and  people,  but  in  law,  the  ends 
might  be  belter  attained.  Whatever  effort  the  Roman  gov- 
ernment made  to  prevent  the  invasion  of  the  Greek  rhetori- 
cian was  all  in  vain.  The  Roman  youth  sought  for  this 


122  Practical  Education. 

knowledge,«which  was  so  necessary  to  them  in  foreign  lands, 
e.g.  in  the  flourishing  school  of  rhetoric  on  the  island  of 
Rhodes.  At  last,  even  the  study  of  Philosophy  commended 
itself  to  the  practical  Roman,  in  order  that  he  might  recover 
for  himself  confidence  amid  the  disappointments  of  life. 
When  his  practical  life  did  not  bring  him  any  result,  he  de- 
voted himself  in  his  poverty  to  abstract  contemplation.  The 
Greeks  would  have  Philosophy  for  its  own  sake ;  the  ataraxy 
of  the  Stoics.  Epicureans,  and  Skeptics  even,  desired  the  result 
of  a  necessary  principle ;  but  the  Roman^  on  the  contrary, 
wished  to  lift  himself  by  philosophemes  above  trouble  and 
misfortune. 

— This  direction  which  Philosophy  took  is  noteworthy,  not 
alone  in  Cicero  and  Seneca,  but  at  the  fall  of  the  Roman  em- 
pire, when  Boethius  wrote  in  his  prison  his  immortal  work  on 
the  consolations  of  Philosophy. — 

§  223.  The  earnestness  which  sought  a  definite  end  degen- 
erated in  the  very  opposite  of  activity  with  him  who  had  no 
definite  aim.  The  idleness  of  the  wealthy  Roman,  who  felt 
himself  to  be  the  lord  of  a  limitless  world,  devoted  itself  to 
dissipation  and  desire  for  enjoyment,  which,  in  its  entire 
want  of  moderation,  abused  nature.  The  finest  form  of  the 
extant  education  was  that  in  belles-lettres,  which  also  for  the 
first  time  came  to  belong  to  the  sphere  of  Pedagogics.  There 
had  been  a  degeneration  of  art  in  India  and  Greece,  and  also 
an  artistic  trifling.  But  in  Rome  there  arose  a  pursuit  of  art 
in-  order  to  win  a  certain  consideration  in  social  position,  and 
to  create  for  one's  self  a  recreation  in  the  emptiness  of  a  soul 
satiated  with  sensual  debauchery.  Such  a  seizing  of  art  is 
frivolous,  for  it  no  longer  recognizes  its  absoluteness,  and 
subordinates  it  as  a  means  to  subjective  egotism.  Literary 
salons  then  appear. 

— In  the  introduction  to  his  Cataline,  Sallust  has  painted 
excellently  this  complete  revolution  in  the  Roman  education. 
The  younger  Pliny  in  his  letters  furnishes  ample  material  to 
illustrate  to  us  this  pursuit  of  belles-lettres.  In  Nero  it 
became  idiotic.  We  should  transgress  our  prescribed  limits 
did  we  enter  here  into  particulars.  An  analysis  would  show 
the  perversion  of  the  aesthetic  into  the  practical,  the  aesthetic 
losing  thereby  its  proper  nature.  But  the  Roman  could  not 


Practical  Education.  123 

avoid  this  perversion,  because,  according  to  his  original  aim, 
lie  could  not  move  except  towards  the  utile  et  Jionestum. — 

§  224.  (3)  But  this  pursuit  of  fine  art,  this  aimless  parade, 
must  at  last  weary  the  Roman.  He  sought  for  himself  again 
an  object  to  which  he  could  vigorously  devote  himself.  His 
sovereignty  was  assured,  and  conquest  as  an  object  could  no 
more  charm  him.  The  national  religion  had  fallen  with  the 
destruction  of  the  national  individuality.  The  soul  looked 
out  over  its  historical  life  into  an  empty  void.  It  sought  to 
establish  a  relation  between  itself  and  the  next  world  by 
means  of  daemonic  forces,  and  in  place  of  the  depreciated  na- 
tionality and  its  religion  we  find  the  eclecticism  of  the  mystic 
society.  There  were,  it  is  true,  in  national  religions  certain 
secret  signs,  rites,  words,  and  meanings ;  but  now,  for  the  first 
time  in  the  history  of  the  world,  there  appeared  mysteries  as 
pedagogical  societies,  which  concerned  themselves  only  with 
private  things  and  were  indifferent  to  nationality.  Every- 
thing was  profaned  by  the  roughness  of  violence.  Man  be- 
lieved no  longer  in  the  old  gods,  and  the  superstitious  faith 
in  ghosts  became  only  a  thing  fit  to  frighten  children  with. 
Thus  man  took  refuge  in  secrecy,  which  had  for  his  satiety 
a  piquant  charm. 

§  225.  The  education  of  the  mysteries  was  twofold,  theo- 
retical and  practical.  In  the  theoretical  we  find  a  regular 
gradation  of  symbols  and  symbolical  acts  through  which  one 
seemed  gradually  to  attain  to  the  revelation  of  the  secret ; 
the  practical  contained  a  regular  gradation  of  ascetic  actions 
alternating  with  an  abandonment  to  wild  orgies.  Both  raised 
one  from  the  rank  of  the  novice  to  that  of  the  initiated.  .In 
the  higher  orders  they  formed  an  ethical  code  of  laws,  and 
this  form  Pedagogics  has  retained  in  all  such  secret  culture, 
mutatis  mutandis,  down  to  the  Illuminati. 

— In  the  Roman  empire,  its  Persian  element  was  the  wor- 
ship of  Mithras ;  its  Egyptian,  that  of  Isis ;  its  Grecian,  the 
Pythagorean  doctrines.  All  these  three,  however,  were  much 
mingled  with  each  other.  The  Roman  legions,  who  really 
no  longer  had  any  native  country,  bore  these  artificial  reli- 
gions throughout  the  whole  world.  The  confusion  of  excite- 
ment led  often  to  Somnambulism,  which  was  not  yet  under- 
stood, and  to  belief  in  miracles.  Apollonius  of  Tyana,  the 


124       Individual  Education — Theocratic  Education. 

messiah  of  Ethnicism,  is  the  principal  figure  in  this  group ; 
and,  in  comparison  with  him,  Jamblichus  appears  only  as  an 
enthusiast  and  Alexander  of  Abonoteichos  as  an  impostor. 

III.  Abstract  Individual  Education. 

§  226.  What  the  despair  of  the  declining  nations  sought 
for  in  these  mysteries  was  Individuality,  which  in  its  singu- 
larity is  conscious  of  the  universality  of  the  rational  spirit, 
as  its  own  essence.  This  individuality  existed  more  imme- 
diately in  the  Germanic  race,  which  nevertheless,  on  account 
of  its  nature,  formed  first  in  Christianity  its  true  actualiza- 
tion. It  can  be  here  only  pointed  out  that  they  most  thor- 
oughly, in  opposition  to  nature,  to  men,  and  to  the  gods,  felt 
themselves  to  be  independent;  as  Tacitus  says,  "Securi  ad- 
nersus  homines,  securi  adversus  Deos."  This  individuality, 
which  had  only  itself  for  an  end,  must  necessarily  be  destroy- 
ed, and  was  saved  only  by  Christianity,  which  overcame  and 
enlightened  its  daemonic  and  defiant  spirit.  We  cannot  speak 
here  of  a  system  of  Education.  Respect  for  personality,  the 
free  acknowledgment  of  the  claims  of  woman,  the  loyalty  to 
the  leader  chosen  by  themselves,  loyalty  to  their  friends  (the 
idea  of  fellowship), — these  features  should  all  be  well-noted, 
because  from  them  arose  the  feudalism  of  the  middle  ages. 
What  Caesar  and  Tacitus  tell  us  of  the  education  of  the  Ger- 
mans expresses  only  the  emancipation  of  individuality,  which 
in  its  immediate  crudeness  had  no  other  form  in  which  to 
manifest  itself  than  wars  of  conquest. 

— To  the  Roman  there  was  something  daemonic  in  the 
German.  He  perceived  dimly  in  him  his  future,  his  mas- 
ter. When  the  Romans  were  to  meet  the  Cimbri  and  Teu- 
tons in  the  field,  their  commander  had  first  to  accustom  them 
for  a  whole  day  to  the  fearful  sight  of  the  wild,  giant-like 
forms. 

SECOND  DIVISION. 
THE  SYSTEM  OF  THEOCRATIC  EDUCATION. 

§  227.  The  system  of  National  Education  founded  its  first 
stage  on  the  substantial  basis  of  the  family- spirit;  its  second 
stage  on  the  division  of  the  nation  by  means  of  division  of 
labor  which  it  makes  permanent  in  castes;  its  third  stage 
presents  the  free  opposition  of  the  laity  and  clergy ;  in  its 


System  of  Theocratic  Education.  125 

next  phase  it  makes  war,  immortality,  and  trade,  by  turns, 
its  end ;  thirdly,  it  posits  beauty,  patriotic  youth,  and  the 
immediateness  of  individuality,  as  the  essence  of  mankind, 
and  at  last  dissolves  the  unity  of  nationality  in  the  con- 
sciousness that  all  nations  are  really  one  since  they  are  all 
human  beings.  In  the  intermixture  of  races  in  the  Roman 
world  arises  the  conception  of  the  human  race,  the  genus  Tiu- 
manum.  Education  had  become  eclectic :  the  Roman  legions 
levelled  the  national  distinctions.  In  the  wavering  of  all 
objective  morality,  the  necessity  of  self-education  in  order 
to  the  formation  of  character  appeared  ever  more  and  more 
clearly  ;  but  the  conception,  which  lay  at  the  foundation,  was 
always,  nevertheless,  that  of  Roman,  Greek,  or  German  edu- 
cation. But  in  the  midst  of  these  nations  another  system  had 
striven  for  development,  and  this  did  not  base  itself  on  the 
natural  connection  of  nationality,  but  made  this,  for  the  first 
time,  only  a  secondary  thing,  and  made  the  direct  relation 
of  man  to  God  its  chief  idea.  In  this  system  God  himself  is 
the  teacher.  He  manifests  to  man  His  will  as  law,  to  which 
he  must  unconditionally  conform  for  no  other  reason  than  that 
He  is  the  Lord,  and  man  His  servant,  who  can  have  no  other 
will  than  His.  The  obedience  of  man  is  therefore,  in  this  sys- 
.tem,  abstract  until  through  experience  he  gradually  attains  to 
the  knowledge  that  the  will  of  God  has  in  it  the  very  essence 
of  his  own  will.  Descent,  Talent,  Events,  Work,  Beauty,  Cour- 
age,— all  these  are  indifferent  things  compared  with  the  sub- 
jection of  the  human  to  the  divine  will.  To  be  well -pleasing 
to  God  is  almost  the  same  as  belief  in  Him.  Without  this 
identity,  what  is  natural  in  national  descent  is  of  no  value. 
According  to  its  form  of  manifestation,  Judaism  is  below  the 
Greek  spirit.  It  is  not  beautiful,  but  rather  grotesque.  But 
in  its  essence,  as  the  religion  of  the  contradiction  between 
the  idea  and  its  existence,  it  goes  beyond  nature,  which  it 
perceives  to  be  established  by  an  absolute,  conscious,  and 
reasonable  Will;  while  the  Greek  concealed  from  himself 
only  mythically  his  dependence  on  nature,  on  his  mother- 
earth.  The  Jews  have  been  preserved  in  the  midst  of  all 
other  culture  by  the  elastic  power  of  the  thought  of  God  as 
One  who  was  free  from  the  control  of  nature.  The  Jews 
have  a  patriotism  in  common  with  the  Romans.  The  Mac- 


126  System  of  Theocratic  Education. 

cabees,  for  example,  were  not  inferior  to  the  Romans  in 
greatness. 

— Abraham  is  the  genuine  Jew  because  he  is  the  genuinely 
faithful  man.  He  does  not  hesitate  to  obey  the  horrible  and 
inhuman  command  of  his  God.  Circumcision  was  made  the 
token  of  the  national  unity,  but  the  nation  may  assimilate 
members  to  itself  from  other  nations  through  this  rite.  The 
condition  always  lies  in  belief  in  a  spiritual  relation  to  which 
the  relation  of  nationality  is  secondary.  The  Jewish  nation 
makes  proselytes,  and  these  are  widely  different  from  the 
Socii  of  the  Romans  or  the  Metoeci  of  the  Athenians. — 

§  228.  To  the  man  who  knows  Nature  to  be  the  work  of 
a  single,  incomparable,  rational  Creator,  she  loses  indepen- 
dence. He  is  negatively  freed  from  her  control,  and  sees  in  her 
only  an  absolute  means.  As  opposed  to  the  fanciful  sensuous 
intuitions  of  Ethnicism,  this  seems  to  be  a  backward  step, 
but  for  the  emancipation  of  man  it  is  a  progress.  He  no 
longer  fears  Nature  but  her  Lord,  and  admires  Him  so  much 
that  prose  rises  to  the  dignity  of  poetry  in  his  telological 
contemplation.  Since  man  stands  over  and  beyond  nature, 
education  is  directed  to  morality  as  such,  and  spreads  itself 
out  in  innumerable  limitations,  by  means  of  which  the  dis- 
tinction of  man  from  nature  is  expressly  asserted  as  a  differ- 
ence. The  ceremonial  law  appears  often  arbitrary,  but  in  its 
prescriptions  it  gives  man  the  satisfaction  of  placing  himself 
as  will  in  relation  to  will.  -For  example,  if  he  is  forbidden 
to  eat  any  specified  part  of  an  animal,  the  ground  of  this 
command  is  not  merely  natural — it  is  the  will  of  the  Deity. 
Man  learns  therefore,  in  his  obedience  to  such  directions,  to 
free  himself  from  his  self-will,  from  his  natural  desires.  This 
exact  outward  conformity  to  subjectivity  is  the  beginning 
of  wisdom,  the  purification  of  the  will  from  all  individual 
egotism. 

— The  rational  substance  of  the  Law  is  found  always  in 
the  Decalogue.  Many  of  our  modern  much-admired  au- 
thors exhibit  a  superficiality  bordering  on  shallowness  when 
they  comment  alone  on  the  absurdity  of  the  miracles, 
and  abstract  from  the  profound  depth  of  the  moral  strug- 
gle, and  from  the  practical  rationality  of  the  ten  command- 
ments.— 


System  of  Theocratic  Education.  127 

§  229.  Education  in  this  theocratical  system  is  on  one  side 
patriarchal.  The  Family  is  very  prominent,  because  it  is 
considered  to  be  a  great  happiness  for  the  individual  to  be- 
long from  his  very  earliest  life  to  the  company  of  those  who 
believe  in  the  true  God.  On  its  other  side  it  is  hierarchical, 
as  its  ceremonial  law  develops  a  special  office,  which  is  to 
see  that  obedience  is  paid  to  its  multifarious  regulations. 
And,  because  these  are  often  perfectly  arbitrary,  Education 
must,  above  all,  practise  the  memory  in  learning  them  all,  so 
that  they  may  always  be  remembered.  The  Jewish  mono- 
theism shares  this  necessity  with  the  superstition  of  ethni- 
cism. 

§  230.  But  the  technique  proper  of  the  mechanism  is  not 
the  most  important  pedagogical  element  of  the  theocracy. 
We  find  this  in  its  historical  significance,  since*  its  history 
throughout  has  a  pedagogical  character.  For  the  people  of 
God  show  us  always,  in  their  changing  intercourse  with  their 
God,  a  progress  from  the  external  to  the  internal,  from  the 
lower  to  the  higher,  from  the  past  to  the  future.  Its  history, 
therefore,  abounds  in  situations  very  interesting  in  a  peda- 
gogical point  of  view,  and  in  characters  which  are  eternal 
models. 

§  231.  (1)  The  will  of  God  as  the  absolute  authority  is  at 
first  to  them,  as  law,  external.  But  soon  God  adds  to  the 
command  to  obedience,  on  one  hand,  the  inducement  of  a 
promise  of  material  prosperity,  and  on  the  other  hand  the 
•threat  of  material  punishment.  The  fulfilment  of  the  law  is 
also  encouraged  by  reflection  on  the  profit  which  it  brings. 
But,  since  these  motives  are  all  external,  they  rise  finally 
into  the  insight  that  the  law  is  to  be  fulfilled,  not  on  their 
account,  but  because  it  is  the  will  of  the  Lord ;  not  alone  be- 
cause it  is  conducive  to  our  happiness,  but  also  because  it  is 
in  itself  holy,  and  written  in  our  hearts :  in  other  words,  man 
proceeds  from  the  abstract  legality,  through  the  reflection  of 
eudflemonism,  to  the  iuternality  of  moral  sentiment — the 
course  of  all  education. 

— This  last  stand-point  is  especially  represented  in  the 
excellent  Gnomic  of  Jesus  Sirach — a  book  so  rich  in  pedago- 
gical insight,  which  paints  with  master-strokes  the  relations 
of  husband  and  wife,  parents  and  children,  master  and  ser- 


128  System  of  Theocratic  Education. 

vants,  friend  and  friend,  enemy  and  enemy,  and  the  dignity 
of  labor  as  well  as  the  necessity  of  its  division.  This  price- 
less book  forms  a  side-piece  from  the  theocratic  stand-point 
to  the  Republic  of  Plato  and  his  laws  on  ethical  govern- 
ment.— 

§  232.  (2)  The  progress  from  the  lower  to  the  higher  ap- 
peared in  the  conquering  of  the  natural  individuality.  Man, 
as  the  servant  of  Jehovah,  must  have  no  will  of  his  own ;  but 
selfish  naturalness  arrayed  itself  so  much  the  more  vigor- 
ously against  the  abstract  "Thou  shalt,"  allowed  itself  to 
descend  into  an  abstraction  from  the  Law,  and  often  reached 
the  most  unbridled  extravagance.  But  since  the  Law  in 
inexorable  might  always  remained  the  same,  always  per- 
sistent, in  distinction  from  the  inequalities  of  the  deed  of 
man,  it  forced  him  to  come  back  to  it,  and  to  conform  him- 
self to  its  demands.  Thus  he  learned  criticism,  thus  he  rose 
from  naturalness  into  spirit.  This  progress  is  at  the  same 
time  a  progress  from  necessity  to  freedom,  because  criticism 
always  gradually  opens  a  way  for  man  into  insight,  so 
that  he  finds  the  will  of  God  to  be  the  truth  of  his  own  self- 
determination.  Because  God  is  one  and  absolute,  there  arises 
the  expectation  that  His  Will  will  become  the  basis  for  the 
will  of  all  nations  and  men.  The  criticism  of  the  understand- 
ing must  recognize  a  contradiction  in  the  fact  that  the  will  of 
the  true  God  is  the  law  of  only  one  nation ;  feared  by  other 
nations,  moreover,  by  reason  of  their  very  worship  of  God  as 
a  gloomy  mystery,  and  detested  as  odium  generis  humani. 
And  thus  is  developed  the  thought  that  the  isolation  of  the 
believers  will  come  to  an  end  as  soon  as  the  other  nations 
recognize  their  faith  as  the  true  one,  and  are  received  into  it. 
Thus  here,  out  of  the  deepest  penetration  of  the  soul  into 
itself,  as  among  the  Romans  out  of  the  fusion  of  nations,  we 
see  appear  the  idea  of  the  human  race. 

§  233.  (3)  The  progress  from  the  past  to  the  future  unfolded 
the  ideal  servant  of  God  who  fulfils  all  the  Law,  and  so  blots 
out  the  empirical  contradiction  that  the  "Thou  shalt"  of  the 
Law  attains  no  adequate  actuality.  This  Prince  of  Peace, 
who  shall  gather  all  nations  under  his  banner,  can  therefore 
have  no  other  thing  predicated  of  him  than  Holiness.  He 
is  not  beautiful  as  the  Greeks  represented  their  ideal,  not 


System  of  Humanitarian  Education.  129 

brave  and  practical  as  was  the  venerated  Virtus  of  the 
Romans;  he  does  not  place  an  infinite  value  on  his  indi- 
viduality as  the  German  does :  but  he  is  represented  as  in- 
significant in  appearance,  as  patient,  as  humble,  as  he  who, 
in  order  to  reconcile  the  world,  takes  upon  himself  the  infir- 
mities and  disgrace  of  all  others.  The  ethnical  nations  have 
only  a  lost  Paradise  behind  them ;  the  Jews  have  one  also 
before  them.  From  this  belief  in  the  Messiah  who  is  to  come, 
from  the  certainty  which  they  have  of  conquering  with  him, 
from  the  power  of  esteeming  all  things  of  small  importance 
in  view  of  such  a  future,  springs  the  indestructible  nature  of 
the  Jews.  They  ignore  the  fact  that  Christianity  is  the  ne- 
cessary result  of  their  own  history.  As  the  nation  that  is 
to  Tie  (des  Seinsollens'),  they  are  merely  a  historical  nation, 
the  nation  among  nations,  whose  education — whenever  the 
Jew  has  not  changed  and  corrupted  its  nature  through  mod- 
ern culture — is  still  always  patriarchal,  hierarchal,  and  mne- 
monic. 

THIRD  DIVISION. 

THE  SYSTEM  OP  HUMANITARIAN  EDUCATION. 

§  234.  The  systems  of  national  and  theocratic  education 
came  to  the  same  result,  though  by  different  ways,  and  this 
result  is  the  conception  of  a  human  race  in  the  unity  of  which 
the  distinctions  of  different  nations  find  their  Truth.  But 
with  them  this  result  is  only  a  conception,  being  a  thing 
external  to  their  actuality.  They  arrive  at  the  painting  of  an 
ideal  of  the  way  in  which  the  Messiah  shall  come.  But  these 
ideals  exist  only  in  the  mind,  and  the  actual  condition  of  the 
people  sometimes  does  not  correspond  to  them  at  all,  and 
sometimes  only  very  relatively.  The  idea  of  spirit  had  in 
these  presuppositions  the  possibility  of  its  concrete  actuali- 
zation ;  one  individual  man  must  become  conscious  of  the 
universality  and  necessity  of  the  will  as  being  the  very  es- 
sence of  his  own  freedom,  so  that  all  heteronomy  should  be 
cancelled  in  the  autonomy  of  spirit.  Natural  individuality 
appearing  as  national  determinateness  was  still  acknowl- 
edged, but  was  deprived  of  its  abstract  isolation.  The  divine 
authority  of  the  truth  of  the  individual  will  is  to  be  recog- 
nized, but  at  the  same  time  freed  from  its  estrangement 
towards  itself.  While  Christ  was  a  Jew  and  obedient  to  the 


130  System  of  Humanitarian  Education. 

divine  Law,  he  knew  himself  as  the  universal  man  who  deter- 
mines himself  to  his  own  destiny ;  and  while  only  distin- 
guishing God,  as  subject,  from  himself,  yet  holds  fast  to  the 
unity  of  man  and  God.  The  system  of  humanitarian  educa- 
tion began  to  unfold  from  this  principle,  which  no  longer 
accords  the  highest  place  to  the  natural  unity  of  national 
individuality,  nor  to  the  abstract  obedience  of  the  command 
of  God,  but  to  that  freedom  of  the  soul  which  knows  itself 
to  be  absolute  necessity.  Christ  is  not  a  mere  ideal  of  the 
thought,  but  is  known  as  a  living  member  of  actual  history, 
whose  life,  sufferings  and  death  for  freedom  form  the  secu- 
rity as  to  its  absolute  justification  and  truth.  The  {esthetic, 
philosophical,  and  political  ideal  are  all  found  in  the  univer- 
sal nature  of  the  Christian  ideal,  on  which  account  no  one  of 
them  appears  one-sided  in  the  life  of  Christ.  The  principle 
of  Human  Freedom  excludes  neither  art,  nor  science,  nor 
political  feeling. 

§  235.  In  its  conception  of  man  the  humanitarian  education 
includes  both  the  national  divisions  and  the  subjection  of  all 
men  to  the  divine  law,  but  it  will  no  longer  endure  that  one 
should  grow  into  an  isolating  exclusiveness,  and  another 
into  a  despotism  which  includes  in  it  somewhat  of  the  acci- 
dental. But  this  principle  of  humanity  and  human  nature 
took  root  so  slowly  that  its  presuppositions  were  repeated 
within  itself  and  were  really  conquered  in  this  reproduction. 
These  stages  of  culture  were  the  Greek,  the  Roman,  and  the 
Protestant  churches,  and  education  was  metamorphosed  to 
suit  the  formation  of  each  of  these. 

— For  the  sake  of  brevity  we  would  wish  to  close  with  these 
general  definitions ;  the  unfolding  of  their  details  is  inti- 
mately bound  up  with  the  history  of  politics  and  of  civiliza- 
tion. We  shall  be  contented  if  we  give  correctly  the  general 
whole. — 

§  236.  "Within  education  we  can  distinguish  three  epochs : 
the  monkish,  the  chivalric,  and  that  education  which  is  to  fit 
one  for  civil  life.  Each  of  these  endeavored  to  express  all 
that  belonged  to  humanity  as  such ;  but  it  was  only  after  the 
recognition  of  the  moral  nature  of  the  Family,  of  Labor,  of 
Culture,  and  of  the  conscious  equal  title  of  all  men  to  their 
rights,  that  this  became  really  possible. 


Epoch  of  Monkish  Education.  131 

I.    The  Epoch  of  Monkish  Education, 

§  237.  The  Greek  Church  seized  the  Christian  principle 
still  abstractly  as  deliverance  from  the  world,  and  therefore, 
in  the  education  proceeding  from  it,  it  arrived  only  at  the 
negative  form,  positing  the  universality  of  the  individual 
man  as  the  renunciation  of  self.*  In  the  dogmatism  of  its 
teaching,  as  well  as  in  the  ascetic  severity  of  its  practical  con- 
duct, it  was  a  reproduction  of  the  theocratic  principle.  But 
when  this  had  assumed  the  form  of  national  centralization, 
the  Greek  Church  dispensed  with  this,  and,  as  far  as  regards 
its  form,  it  returned  again  to  the  quietism  of  the  Orient. 

§  238.  The  monkish  education  is  in  general  identical  in  all 
religions,  in  that,  through  the  egotism  of  its  way  of  living  and 
the  stoicism  of  its  way  of  thinking,  through  the  separation 
of  its  external  existence  and  the  mechanism  of  a  thoughtless 
subjection  to  a  general  rule  as  well  as  to  the  special  com- 
mand of  superiors,  it  fosters  a  spiritual  and  bodily  dulness. 
The  Christian  monachism,  therefore,  as  the  fulfilment  of 
monachism  in  general,  is  at  the  same  time  its  absolute  dis- 
solution, because,  in  its  merely  abstracting  itself  from  the 
world  instead  of  affirmatively  conquering  it,  it  contradicts 
the  very  principle  of  Christianity. 

§  239.  We  must  notice  as  the  fundamental  error  of  this 
whole  system,  that  it  does  not  in  free  individuality  seek  to 
produce  the  ideal  of  divine-humanity,  but  to  copy  in  exter- 
nal reproduction  its  historical  manifestation.  Each  human 
being  must  individually  offer  up  as  sacrifice  his  own  indivi- 
duality. Each  biography  has  its  Bethlehem,  its  Tabor,  and 
its  Golgotha. 

§  240.  Monachism  looks  upon  freedom  from  one's  self  and 
from  the  world  which  Christianity  demands  only  as  an  ab- 
stract renunciation  of  self,  which  it  seeks  to  compass,  like 
Buddhism,  by  the  vow  of  poverty,  chastity,  and  obedience, 
which  must  be  taken  by  each  individual  for  all  time. 

— This  rejection  of  property,  of  marriage,  and  of  self-will, 
is  at  the  same  time  the  negation  of  work,  of  the  family,  and 
of  responsibility  for  one's  actions.  In  order  to  avoid  the 
danger  of  avarice  and  covetousness,  of  sensuality  and  of 
nepotism,  of  error  and  of  guilt,  monachism  seizes  the  conve- 


132  Epoch  of  Monkish  Education. 

nient  way  of  abstract  severance  from  all  the  objective  world 
without  being  able  fully  to  carry  out  this  negation.  Monkish 
Pedagogics  must,  in  consequence,  be  very  particular  about 
an  external  separation  of  their  disciples  from  the  world,  so 
as  to  make  the  work  of  abstraction  from  the  world  easier  and 
more  decided.  It  therefore  builds  cloisters  in  the  solitude  of 
deserts,  in  the  depth  of  forests,  on  the  summits  of  mountains, 
and  surrounds  them  with  high  walls  having  no  apertures ; 
and  then,  so  as  to  carry  the  isolation  of  the  individual  to  its 
farthest  possible  extreme  it  constructs,  within  these  cloisters, 
cells,  in  imitation  of  the  ancient  hermits — a  seclusion  the  im- 
mediate consequence  of  which  is  the  most  limitless  and  most 
paltry  curiosity. — 

§  241.  Theoretically  the  monkish  Pedagogics  seeks,  by 
means  of  the  greatest  possible  silence,  to  place  the  soul  in  a 
state  of  spiritual  immobility,  which  at  last,  through  the  want 
of  all  variety  of  thought,  goes  over  into  entire  apathy,  and 
antipathy  towards  all  intellectual  culture.  The  principal 
feature  of  the  practical  culture  consists  in  the  misapprehen- 
sion that  one  should  ignore  Nature,  instead  of  morally  freeing 
himself  from  her  control.  As  she,  again  and  again  asserts 
herself,  the  monkish  discipline  proceeds  to  misuse  her,  and 
strives  through  fasting,  through  sleeplessness,  through  vol- 
untary self-inflicted  pain  and  martyrdom,  not  only  to  subdue 
the  wantonness  of  the  flesh,  but  to  destroy  the  love  of  life 
till  it  shall  become  a  positive  loathing  of  existence.  In  and 
for  itself  the  object  of  the  monkish  vow — property,  the  fami- 
ly, and  will — is  not  immoral.  The  vow  is,  on  this  account, 
very  easy  to  violate.  In  order  to  prevent  all  temptation  to 
this,  monkish  Pedagogics  invents  a  system  of  supervision, 
partly  open,  partly  secret,  which  deprives  one  of  all  freedom 
of  action,  all  freshness  of  thinking  and  of  willing,  and  all 
poetry  of  feeling,  by  means  of  the  perpetual  shadow  of  spies 
and  informers.  The  monks  are  welUversed  in  all  police- 
arts,  and  the  regular  succession  of  the  hierarchy  spurs  them 
on  always  to  distinguish  themselves  in  them. 

§  242.  The  gloomy  breath  of  this  education  penetrated  all 
the  relations  of  the  Byzantine  State.  Even  the  education  of 
the  emperor  was  infected  by  it;  and  in  the  strife  for  freedom 
waged  by  the  modern  Greeks  against  the  Turks,  the  Igumeni 


Epoch  of  CMvalric  Education.  133 

of  the  cloisters  were  the  real  leaders  of  the  insurrection.  The 
independence  of  individuality,  as  opposed  to  monkish  ab- 
straction, more  or  less  degenerates  into  the  crude  form  of 
soldier  and  pirate  life.  And  thus  it  happened  that  this  prin- 
ciple was  not  left  to  appear  merely  as  an  exception,  but  to 
be  built  up  positively  into  humanity ;  and  this  the  German 
world,  under  the  guidance  of  the  Roman  Church,  undertook 
to  accomplish. 

II.    The  Epoch  of  Chivalric  Education. 

§  243.  The  Romish  Church  negated  the  abstract  substan- 
tiality of  the  Greeks  through  the  practical  aim  which  she  in 
her  sanctity  in  works  founded,  and  by  means  of  which  she 
raised  up  German  individuality  to  the  idealism  of  chivalry, 
i.e.  a  free  military  service  in  behalf  of  Christendom. 

§  244.  It  is  evident  that  the  system  of  monkish  education 
was  taken  up  into  this  epoch  as  one  of  its  elements,  being 
modified  to  conform  to  it :  e.g.  the  Benedictines  were  accus- 
tomed to  labor  in  agriculture  and  in  the  transcribing  of 
books,  and  this  contradicted  the  idea  of  monachism,  since 
that  in  and  for  itself  tends  to  an  absolute  forgetfulness  of  the 
world  and  a  perfect  absence  of  all  activity  in  the  individual. 
The  begging  orders  were  public  preachers,  and  made  popu- 
lar the  idea  of  love  and  unselfish  devotion  toothers.  They 
labored  toward  self-education,  especially  by  means  of  the 
ideal  of  the  life  of  Christ ;  e.g.  in  Tauler's  classical  book  on 
the  Imitation  of  Jesus,  and  in  the  work  of  Thomas-a-Kempis 
which  resembles  it.  Through  a  fixed  contemplative  com- 
munion with  the  conception  of  the  Christ  who  suffered  and 
died  for  Love,  they  sought  to  find  content  in  divine  rest  and 
self-abandonment. 

§  245.  German  chivalry  sprang  from  Feudalism.  The  edu- 
cation of  those  pledged  to  military  duty  had  become  confined 
to  practice  in  the  use^of  arms.  The  education  of  the  chivalric 
vassals  pursued  the  same  course,  refining  it  gradually  through 
the  influence  of  court  society  and  through  poetry,  which 
devoted  itself  either  to  the  relating  of  graceful  tales  which 
were  really  works  of  art,  or  to  the  glorification  of  woman. 
Girls  were  brought  up  without  especial  care.  The  boy  until 
he  was  seven  years  old  remained  in  the  hands  of  women  ; 


134  Epoch  of  Chivalric  Education. 

then  he  became  a  lad  (a  young  gentleman),  and  learned  the 
manner  of  offensive  and  defensive  warfare,  on  foot  and  on 
horseback ;  between  his  sixteenth  and  eighteenth  year, 
through  a  formal  ceremony  (the  laying  on  of  the  sword),  he 
was  duly  authorized  to  bear  arms.  But  whatever  besides 
this  he  might  wish  to  learn  was  left  to  his  own  caprice. 

§  246.  In  contradistinction  to  the  monkish  education,  Chi- 
valry placed  an  infinite  value  on  individuality,  and  this  it 
expressed  in  its  extreme  sensibility  to  the  feeling  of  honor. 
Education,  on  this  account,  endeavored  to  foster  this  reflec- 
tion of  the  self  upon  itself  by  means  of  the  social  isolation 
in  which  it  placed  knighthood.  The  knight  did  not  delight 
himself  with  common  possessions,  but  he  sought  for  him 
who  had  been  wronged,  since  with  him  he  could  find  enjoy- 
ment as  a  conqueror.  He  did  not  live  in  simple  marriage, 
but  strove  for  the  piquant  pleasure  of  making  the  wife  of 
another  the  lady  of  his  heart,  and  this  often  led  to  moral  and 
physical  infidelity.  And,  finally,  the  knight  did  not  obey 
alone  the  general  laws  of  knightly  honor,  but  he  strove,  be- 
sides, to  discover  for  himself  strange  things,  which  he  should 
undertake  with  his  sword,  in  defiance  of  all  criticism,  sim- 
ply because  it  pleased  his  caprice  so  to  do.  He  sought  ad- 
ventures. 

§  247.  The  reaction  against  the  innumerable  number  of 
fantastic  extravagancies  arising  from  chivalry  was  the  idea 
of  the  spiritual  chivalry  which  was  to  unite  the  cloister  and 
the  town,  abstract  self-denial  and  military  life,  separation 
from  the  world  and  the  sovereignty  of  the  world — an  unde- 
niable advance,  but  un  untenable  synthesis  which  could  not 
prevent  the  dissolution  of  chivalry — this  chivalry,  which,  as 
the  rule  of  the  stronger,  induced  for  a  long  time  the  destruc- 
tion of  all  regular  culture  founded  on  principles,  and  brought 
a  period  of  absence  of  all  education.  In  this  perversion  of 
chivalry  to  a  grand  vagabondism,  and  even  to  robbery,  noble 
souls  often  rushed  into  ridiculous  excesses.  This  decline  of 
chivalry  found  its  truth  in  Citizenship,  whose  education,  how- 
ever, did  not,  like  the  TTO/^C  and  the  cimtas  of  the  ancients, 
limit  itself  to  itself,  but,  through  the  presence  of  the  princi- 
ple of  Christianity,  accepted  the  whole  circle  of  humanity  as 
the  aim  of  its  culture. 


Education  for  Civil  Life —  Civil  Education.        135 
III.    The  Epoch  of  Education  fitting  one  for  Civil  Life. 

§  248.  The  idea  of  the  State  had  gradually  worked  itself 
up  to  a  higher  plane  with  trade  and  industry,  and  found  in 
Protestantism  its  spiritual  confirmation.  Protestantism,  as 
the  self  assurance  of  the  individual  that  he  was  directly 
related  to  God  without  any  dependence  on  the  mediation  of 
any  man,  rose  to  the  truth  in  the  autonomy  of  the  soul,  and 
began  out  of  the  abstract  phantasmagoria  of  monachism  and 
chivalry  to  develope  Christianity,  as  the  principle  of  humani- 
tarian education,  into  concrete  actuality.  The  cities  were 
not  merely,  in  comparison  with  the  clergy  and  the  nobility, 
the  "  third  estate";  but  the  citizen  who  himself  managed  his 
commonwealth,  and  defended  its  interests  with  arms,  devel- 
oped into  the  citizen  of  a  state  which  absorbed  the  clergy  and 
nobility,  and  the  state-citizen  found  his  ultimate  ideal  in  pure 
Humanity  as  cognized  through  reason. 

§  249.  The  phases  of  this  development  are  (1)  Civil  edu- 
cation as  such,  in  which  we  find  chivalric  education  meta- 
morphosed into  the  so-called  noble,  both  however  being 
controlled  as  to  education,  within  Catholicism  by  Jesuitism, 
within  Protestantism  by  Pietism.  (2)  Against  this  tendency 
to  the  church,  we  find  reacting  on  the  one  hand  the  devotion 
to  a  study  of  antiquity,  and  on  the  other  the  friendly  alli- 
ance to  immediate  actuality,  i.e.  with  Nature.  We  can 
name  these  periods  of  Pedagogics  those  of  its  ideals  of 
culture.  (3)  But  the  truth  of  all  culture  must  forever  re- 
main moral  freedom.  After  Education  had  arrived  at  a 
knowledge  of  the  meaning  of  Idealism  and  Realism,  it  must 
seize  as  its  absolute  aim  the  moral  emancipation  of  man 
into  Humanity ;  and  it  must  conform  its  culture  by  this  aim, 
since  technical  dexterity,  friendly  adroitness,  proficiency  in 
the  arts,  and  scientific  insight,  can  attain  to  their  proper  rank 
only  through  moral  purity. 

1.   Civil  Education  as  such. 

§  250.  The  one-sidedness  of  monkish  and  chivalric  educa- 
tion was  cancelled  by  civil  education  inasmuch  as  it  de- 
stroyed the  celibacy  of  the  monk  and  the  estrangement  of 
the  knight  from  his  family,  doing  this  by  means  of  the  inner 


136  Civil  Education. 

life  of  the  family ;  for  it  substituted,  in  the  place  of  the  nega- 
tive emptiness  of  the  duty  of  holiness  of  the  celibate,  the 
positive  morality  of  marriage  and  the  family ;  while,  instead 
of  the  abstract  poverty  and  the  idleness  of  the  monkish  piety 
and  of  knighthood,  it  asserted  that  property  was  the  object  of 
labor,  i.e.  it  asserted  the  self-governed  morality  of  civil  so- 
ciety and  of  commerce ;  and,  finally,  instead  of  the  servitude 
of  the  conscience  in  unquestioning  obedience  to  the  command 
of  others,  and  instead  of  the  freakish  self-sufficiency  of  the 
caprice  of  the  knights,  it  demanded  obedience  to  the  laws  of 
the  commonwealth  as  representing  his  own  self-conscious, 
actualized,  practical  Reason,  in  which  laws  the  individual 
can  recognize  and  acknowledge  himself. 

— As  this  civil  education  left  free  the  sensuous  enjoyment, 
freedom  in  this  was  without  bounds  for  a  time,  until,  aftei 
men  became  accustomed  to  labor  and  to  their  freedom  of 
action,  the  possibility  of  enjoyment  created  from  within  out- 
ward a  moderation  which  sumptuary  laws  and  prohibitions 
of  gluttony,  drunkenness,  &c.,  could  never  create  from  the 
external  side.  What  the  monk  inconsistently  enjoyed  with 
a  bad  conscience,  the  citizen  and  the  clergyman  could 
take  possession  of  as  a  gift  of  Gfod.  After  the  first  millen- 
nium of  Christianity,  when  the  earth  had  not,  according  to 
the  current  prophecies,  been  destroyed,  and  after  the  great 
plague  in  the  fourteenth  century,  there  was  felt  an  im- 
mense pleasure  in  living,  which  manifested  itself  externally 
in  the  fifteenth  century  in  delicate  wines,  dainty  food,  great 
eating  of  meat,  drinking  of  beer,  and,  in  the  domain  of  dress,. 
in  peaked  shoes,  plumes,  golden  chains,  bells,  &c.  There  was 
much  venison,  but,  as  yet,  no  potatoes,  tea  and  coffee,  &c. 
The  feeling  of  men  was  quarrelsome.  For  a  more  exact 
painting  of  the  Education  of  this  time,  very  valuable  au- 
thors are  Sebastian  Brant,  Th.  Murner,  Ulrich  von  Hutten, 
Fischart,  and  Hans  Sachs.  Gervinus  is  almost  the  only  one 
who  has  understood  how  to  make  this  material  useful  in  its 
relation  to  spirit. — 

§  251.  In  contrast  with  the  heaven-seeking  of  the  monks 
and  the  sentimental  love-making  of  the  knight,  civil  educa- 
tion established,  as  its  principle,  Usefulness,  which  traced  out 
in  things  their  conformity  to  a  proposed  end  in  order  to  gain 


Civil  Education.  137 

as  great  a  mastery  over  them  as  possible.  The  understand- 
ing was  trained  with  all  exactness  that  it  might  clearly  seize 
all  the  circumstances.  But  since  family -life  did  not  allow  the 
egotism  of  the  individual  ever  to  become  as  great  as  was  the 
case  with  the  monk  and  the  knight,  and  since  the  cheer  of  a 
sensuous  enjoyment  in  cellar  and  kitchen,  in  clothing  and 
furniture,  in  common  games  and  in  picturesque  parades, 
penetrated  the  whole  being  with  soft  pleasure,  there  was  de- 
veloped with  all  propriety  and  sobriety  a  house-morality, 
and,  with  all  the  prose  of  labor,  a  warm  and  kindly  disposi- 
tion, which  left  room  for  innocent  merriment  and  roguery, 
and  found,  in  conformity  to  religious  services,  its  serious 
transfiguration.  Beautiful  burgher-state,  thou  wast  weak- 
ened by  the  thirty  years'  war,  and  hast  been  only  acciden- 
tally preserved  sporadically  in  Old  England  and  in  some 
places  in  Germany,  only  to  be  at  last  swept  away  by  the 
flood  of  modern  world-pain,  political  sophistry,  and  anxiety 
for  the  future ! 

§  252.  The  citizen  paid  special  attention  to  public  educa- 
tion, heretofore  wholly  dependent  upon  the  church  and  the 
cloister ;  he  organized  city  schools,  whose  teachers,  it  is  true, 
for  a  long  time  compassed  only  accidental  culture,  and  were 
often  employed  only  for  tumultuous  and  short  terms.  The 
society  of  the  brotherhood  of  the  Hieronymites  introduced  a 
better  system  of  instruction  before  the  close  of  the  fourteenth 
century,  but  education  had  often  to  be  obtained  from  the  so- 
called  travelling  scholars  (vagantes,  bacchantes,  scholastici, 
goliardi).  The  teachers  of  the  so-called  scholce  exterioresy 
in  distinction  from  the  schools  of  the  cathedral  and  cloister, 
were  called  now  locati,  then  stampuales — in  German,  Kinder- 
Meister.  The  institution  of  German  schools  soon  followed 
the  Latin  city  schools.  In  order  to  remove  the  anarchy  in 
school  matters,  the  citizens  aided  the  rise  of  universities  by 
donations  and  well-invested  funds,  and  sustained  the  street- 
singing  of  the  city  scholars  (currende),  an  institution  which 
was  well-meant,  but  which  often  failed  of  its  end  because  on 
the  one  hand  it  was  often  misused  as  a  mere  means  of  sub- 
sistence, and  on  the  other  hand  the  sense  of  honor  of  those 
to  whom  it  was  devoted  not  unfrequently  became,  through 
their  manner  of  living,  lowered  to  humiliation.  The  defect 


138  Civil  Education. 

of  the  monkish  method  of  instruction  became  ever  more 
apparent,  e.g.  the  silly  tricks  of  their  mnemotechnique,  the 
utter  lack  of  anything  which  deserved  the  name  of  any  prac- 
tical knowledge,  &c.  The  necessity  of  instruction  in  the  use 
of  arms  led  to  democratic  forms.  Printing  favored  the  same. 
Men  began  to  concern  themselves  about  good  text-books. 
Melanchthon  was  the  hero  of  the  Protestant  world,  and  as  a 
pattern  was  beyond  his  time.  His  Dialectics,  Rhetoric,  Phys- 
ics, and  Ethics,  were  reprinted  innumerable  times,  comment- 
ed upon,  and  imitated.  After  him  Amos  Comenius,  in  the 
seventeenth  century,  had  the  greatest  influence  through  his 
Didactica  Magna  and  his  Janua  Reserta.  In  a  narrower 
sphere,  treating  of  the  foundation  of  Gymnasial  Philology, 
the  most  noticeable  is  Sturm  of  Strasburg.  The  universities 
in  Catholic  countries  limited  themselves  to  the  Scholastic 
Philosophy  and  Theology,  together  with  which  we  find 
slowly  struggling  up  the  Roman  Law  and  the  system  of 
Medicine  from  Bologna  and  Salerno.  But  Protestantism  first 
raised  the  university  to  any  real  universality.  Tubingen, 
Konigsberg,  Wittenberg,  Jena,  Leipzic,  Halle,  Gottingen, 
&c.,  were  the  first  schools  for  the  study  of  all  sciences,  and 
for  their  free  and  productive  pursuit. 

253.  The  Commons,  which  at  first  appeared  with  the  clergy 
and  the  nobility  as  the  Third  Estate,  formed  an  alliance  with 
monarchy,  and  both  together  produced  a  transformation  of 
the  chivalric  education.  Absolutism  reduced  the  knights  to 
mere  nobles,  to  whom  it  truly  conceded  the  prerogative  of 
appointment  as  spiritual  prelates  as  well  as  officers  and  coun- 
sellors of  state,  but  only  on  the  condition  of  the  most  com- 
plete submission;  and  then,  to  satisfy  them,  it  invented  the 
artificial  drinking  festivals,  of  a  splendid  life  at  court,  and  a 
temptingly-impressive  sovereignty  of  beauty.  In  this  condi- 
tion, the  education  of  the  nobles  was  essentially  changed  in 
so  far  as  to  cease  to  be  alone  military.  To  the  art  of  war, 
which  moreover  was  made  so  very  much  milder  by  the  inven- 
tion of  fire-arms,  must  be  now  added  an  activity  of  the  mind 
which  could  no  longer  dispense  with  some  knowledge  of 
History,  Heraldry,  Genealogy,  Literature,  and  Mythology. 
Since  the  French  nation  soon  enough  gave  tone  to  the  style 
of  conversation,  and  after  the  time  of  Louis  XIV.  controlled 


Civil  Education.  139 

the  politics  of  the  continent,  the  French  language,  as  conven- 
tional and  diplomatic,  became  a  constant  element  in  the  edu- 
cation of  the  nobility  in  all  the  other  countries  of  Europe. 

— Practically  the  education  of  the  noble  endeavored  to 
make  the  individual  quite  independent,  so  that  he  should,  by 
means  of  the  important  quality  of  an  advantageous  personal 
appearance  and  the  prudence  of  his  agreeable  behavior, 
make  himself  into  a  ruler  of  all  other  men,  capable  of  enjoy- 
ing his  own  position,  i.e.  he  should  copy  in  miniature  the 
manners  of  an  absolute  sovereign.  To  this  was  added  an 
empirical  knowledge  of  men  by  means  of  ethical  maxims,  so 
that  they  might  discover  the  weak  side  of  every  man,  and 
so  be  able  to  outwit  him.  Mundus  vuU  decipi,  ergo  deci- 
piatur.  According  to  this,  every  man  had  his  price.  They 
did  not  believe  in  the  Nemesis  of  a  divine  destiny ;  on  the 
contrary,  disbelief  in  the  higher  justice  was  taught.  One 
must  be  so  elastic  as  to  suit  himself  to  all  situations,  and, 
as  a  caricature  of  the  ancient  ataraxy,  he  must  acquire  as  a 
second  nature  a  manner  perfectly  indifferent  to  all  changes, 
the  impassibility  of  an  aristocratic  repose,  the  amphibious 
sang-froid  of  the  "  gentleman."  The  man  in  the  world  as  the 
man  of  the  world  sought  his  ideal  in  endless  dissimulation, 
and  in  this,  as  the  flowering  of  his  culture,  he  took  the  high- 
est interest.  Intrigue,  in  love  as  well  as  in  politics,  was  the 
soul  of  the  nobleman's  existence. 

— They  endeavored  to  complete  the  refinement  of  manners 
by  sending  the  young  man  away  with  a  travelling  tutor. 
This  was  very  good,  but  degenerated  at  last  into  the  mechan- 
ism of  the  foolish  travelling  of  the  tourist.  The  noble  was 
made  a  foreigner,  a  stranger  to  his  own  country,  by  means 
of  his  abode  at  Paris  or  Venice,  while  the  citizen  gradually 
outstripped  him  in  genuine  culture. 

§  254.  The  education  of  the  citizen  as  well  as  that  of  the 
noble  was  taken  possession  of,  in  Catholic  countries  by  the 
Jesuits,  in  Protestant  countries  by  the  Pietists :  by  the  first, 
with  a  military  strictness;  by  the  second,  in  asocial  and 
effeminate  form.  Both,  however,  agreed  in  destroying  indi- 
viduality, inasmuch  as  the  one  degraded  man  into  a  will-less 
machine  for  executing  the  commands  of  others,  and  the  other 
deadened  him  in  cultivating  the  feeling  of  his  sinful  worth- 
lessness. 


140  Jesuitic  Education. 

(a)    Jesuitic  Education, 

§  255.  Jesuitism  combined  the  maximum  of  worldly  free- 
dom with  an  appearance  of  the  greatest  piety.  Proceeding 
from  this  stand-point,  it  devoted  itself  in  education  to  ele- 
gance and  showy  knowledge,  to  diplomacy  and  what  was 
suitable  and  convenient  in  morals.  To  bring  the  future  more 
into  its  power,  it  adapted  itself  not  only  to  youth  in  general, 
but  especially  to  the  youth  of  the  nobler  classes.  To  please 
these,  the  Jesuits  laid  great  stress  upon  a  fine  deportment. 
In  their  colleges  dancing  and  fencing  were  well-taught.  They 
knew  how  well  they  should  by  this  course  content  the  noble, 
who  had  by  preference  usurped  the  name  of  Education  for 
this  technical  way  of  giving  formal  expression  to  personality. 

— In  instruction  they  developed  so  exact  a  mechanism  that 
they  gained  the  reputation  of  having  model  school  regula- 
tions, and  even  Protestants  sent  their  children  to  them.  From 
the  close  of  the  sixteenth  century  to  the  present  time  they 
have  based  their  teaching  upon  the  ratio  et  institutio  Stu- 
diorum  Societatis  Jesu  of  Claudius  Aquaviva,  and,  following 
that,  they  distinguish  two  courses  of  teaching,  a  higher  and 
a  lower.  The  lower  included  nothing  but  an  external  knowl- 
edge of  the  Latin  language,  and  some  fortuitous  knowledge 
of  History,  of  Antiquities,  and  of  Mythology.  The  memory 
was  cultivated  as  a  means  of  keeping  down  free  activity  of 
thought  and  clearness  of  judgment.  The  higher  course  com- 
prehended Dialectics,  Rhetoric,  Physics,  and  Morals.  Dia- 
lectics appeared  in  the  form  of  Sophistry.  In  Rhetoric,  they 
favored  the  polemical-emphatic  style  of  the  African  fathers 
of  the  Church  and  their  pompous  phraseology ;  in  Physics, 
they  stopped  with  Aristotle,  and  especially  advised  the  read- 
ing of  the  books  De  Generatione  et  Corruptione,  and  De 
Casio,  on  which  they  commented  after  their  fashion  ;  finally, 
in  Morals  casuistic  skepticism  was  their  central  point.  They 
made  much  of  Rhetoric  on  account  of  their  sermons,  giving 
to  it  much  attention,  and  introduced  especially  Declamation. 
Contriving  showy  public  examinations  under  the  guise  of 
Latin  School  Comedies,  they  thus  amused  the  public,  dis- 
posed them  to  approval,  and  at  the  same  time  quite  inno- 
cently practised  the  pupil  in  dissimulation. 

— Diplomacy  in  behavior  was  made  necessary  to  the  Jesuits 
as  well  by  their  strict  military  discipline  as  by  their  system 


Pietistic  Education.  141 

of  reciprocal  mistrust,  espionage,  and  informing.  Abstract 
obedience  was  a  reason  for  any  act  of  the  pupils,  and  they 
were  freed  from  all  responsibility  as  to  its  moral  justifica- 
tion. This  empirical  exact  following  out  of  all  commands, 
and  refraining  from  any  criticism  as  to  principles,  created  a 
moral  indifference,  and,  from  the  necessity  of  having  consid- 
eration for  the  peculiarities  and  caprices  of  the  superior  on 
whom  all  others  were  dependent,  arose  eye-service,  and  the 
coldness  of  isolation  sprang  from  the  necessity  which  each 
felt  of  being  on  his  guard  against  every  other  as  against  a 
tale-bearer.  The  most  deliberate  hypocrisy  and  pleasure  in 
intrigue  merely  for  the  sake  of  intrigue — this  most  refined 
poison  of  moral  corruption — were  the  result.  Jesuitism  had 
not  only  an  interest  in  the  material  profit,  which,  when  it 
had  corrupted  souls,  fell  to  its  share,  but  it  also  had  an  inter- 
est in  the  process  of  corruption.  With  absolute  indifference 
as  to  the  idea  of  morality,  and  absolute  indifference  as  to  the 
moral  quality  of  the  means  used  to  attain  its  end,  it  rejoiced 
in  the  superiority  of  secrecy,  of  the  accomplished  and  cal- 
culating understanding,  and  in  deceiving  the  credulous  by 
means  of  its  graceful,  seemingly-perfect,  moral  language. 

— It  is  not  necessary  to  speak  here  of  the  morality  of  the 
Order.  It  is  sufficiently  recognized  as  the  contradiction,  that 
the  idea  of  morality  insists  upon  the  eternal  necessity  of 
every  deed,  but  that  in  the  realizing  of  the  action  all  deter- 
minations should  be  made  relative  and  should  vary  with  the 
circumstances.  As  to  discipline,  they  were  always  guided 
by  their  fundamental  principle,  that  body  and  soul,  as  in  and 
for  themselves  one,  could  vicariously  suffer  for  each  other. 
Thus  penitence  and  contrition  were  transformed  into  a 
perfect  materialism  of  outward  actions,  and  hence  arose  the 
punishments  of  the  Order,  in  which  fasting,  scourging,  im- 
prisonment, mortification,  and  death,  were  formed  into  a 
mechanical  artificial  system. 

(b)  Pietistic  Education. 

§  256.  Jesuitism  would  make  machines  of  man,  Pietism 
would  dissolve  him  in  the  feeling  of  his  sinfulness :  either 
would  destroy  his  individuality.  Pietism  proceeded  from 
the  principle  of  Protestantism,  as,  in  the  place  of  the  Catholic 
Pelagianism  with  its  sanctification  by  works,  it  offered  justi- 


142  Pietistic  Education. 

cation  by  faith  alone.  In  its  tendency  to  internality  was  its 
just  claim.  It  would  have  even  the  letters  of  the  Bible  trans- 
lated into  the  vivacity  of  sentiment.  But  in  its  execution  it 
fell  into  the  error  of  one-sidedness  in  that  it  placed,  instead 
of  the  actuality  of  the  spirit  and  its  freedom,  the  confusion  of 
a  limited  personality,  placing  in  its  stead  the  personality  of 
Christ  in  an  external  manner,  and  thus  brought  back  into  the 
very  midst  of  Protestantism  the  principle  of  monachism — an 
abstract  renunciation  of  the  world.  Since  Protestantism  has 
destroyed  the  idea  of  the  cloister,  it  could  produce  estrange- 
ment from  the  world  only  by  exciting  public  opinion  against 
such  elements  of  society  and  culture  which  it  stigmatized  as 
worldly  for  its  members,  e.g.  card-playing,  dancing,  the  thea- 
tre, &c.  Thus  it  became  negatively  dependent  upon  works  ; 
for  since  its  followers  remained  in  reciprocal  action  with  the 
world,  so  that  the  temptation  to  backsliding  was  a  perma- 
nent one,  it  must  watch  over  them,  exercise  an  indispensable 
moral-police  control  over  them,  and  thus,  by  the  suspicion  of 
each  other  which  was  involved,  take  up  into  itself  the  Jesuit- 
ical practice,  although  in  a  very  mild  and  affectionate  way. 
Instead  of  the  forbidden  secrecy  of  the  cloister,  it  organized 
a  separate  company,  which  we,  in  its  regularly  constituted 
assembly,  call  a  conventicle.  Instead  of  the  cowl,  it  put  on 
its  youth  a  dress  like  that  of  the  world,  but  scant  and  ashen- 
colored  ;  it  substituted  for  the  tonsure  closely-cut  hair  and 
shaven  beard,  and  it  often  went  beyond  the  obedience  of 
the  monks  in  its  expression  of  pining  humility  and  prud- 
ish composure.  Education  within  such  a  circle  could  not 
well  recognize  nature  and  history  as  manifestations  of  God, 
but  it  must  consider  them  to  be  limitations  to  their  union 
with  God,  from  which  death  can  first  then  completely  release 
them.  The  soul  which  knew  that  its  home  could  be  found 
only  in  the  future  world,  must  feel  itself  to  be  a  stranger 
upon  the  earth,  and  from  such  an  opinion  there  must  arise 
an  indifference  and  even  a  contempt  for  science  and  art,  as 
well  as  an  aversion  for  a  life  of  active  labor,  though  an  un- 
willing and  forced  tribute  might  be  paid  to  it.  Philosophy 
especially  was  to  be  shunned  as  dangerous.  Bible  lectures, 
the  catechism  and  the  hymn-book,  were  the  one  thing  need- 
ful to  the  "poor  in  spirit."  Religious  poetry  and  music  were, 
of  all  the  arts,  the  only  ones  deserving  of  any  cultivation.  The 


The  Ideal  of  Culture—  The  Humanitarian  Ideal.     143 

education  of  Pietism  endeavored,  by  means  of  a  carefully 
arranged  series  of  representations,  to  create  in  its  disciples 
the  feeling  of  their  absolute  nothingness,  vileness,  godless- 
ness,  and  abandonment  by  God,  in  order  to  displace  the  tor- 
ment of  despair  as  to  themselves  and  the  world  by  a  warm, 
dramatic,  and  living  relation  to  Christ — a  relation  in  which 
all  the  Eroticism  of  the  mystical  passion  of  the  begging- friars 
was  renewed  in  a  somewhat  milder  form  and  with  a  strong 
tendency  to  a  sentimental  sweetishness. 

2.   The  Ideal  of  Culture. 

§  257.  Civil  Education  arose  from  the  recognition  of  mar- 
riage and  the  family,  of  labor  and  enjoyment,  of  the  equality 
of  all  before  the  Law,  and  of  the  duty  of  self-determination. 
Jesuitism  in  the  Catholic  world  and  Pietism  in  the  Protestant 
were  the  reaction  against  this  recognition — a  return  into  the 
abstract  asceticism  of  the  middle  ages,  not  however  in  its 
purity,  but  mixed  with  some  regard  for  worldly  possessions. 
In  opposition  to  this  reaction  the  commonwealth  produced 
another,  in  which  it  undertook  to  deliver  individuality  by 
means  of  a  reversed  alienation.  On  the  one  hand,  it  absorbed 
itself  in  the  conception  of  the  Greek-Roman  world.  In  the 
practical  interests  of  the  present,  it  externalized  man  in  a 
past  which  held  to  the  present  no  immediate  relation,  or  it 
externalized  him  in  the  affairs  which  were  to  serve  him  as 
means  of  his  comfort  and  enjoyment;  it  created  an  abstract 
idealism — a  reproduction  of  the  old  view  of  the  world — or  an 
abstract  Realism  in  a  high  appreciation  of  things  which 
should  be  considered  of  value  only  as  a  means.  In  one  direc- 
tion, Individuality  proceeded  towards  a  dead  nationality ;  in 
the  other,  towards  an  unlimited  world-commonwealth.  In 
one  case,  the  ideal  was  the  aesthetic  republicanism  of  the 
Greeks ;  in  the  other,  the  utilitarian  cosmopolitanism  of  the 
Romans.  But,  in  considering  the  given  circumstances,  both 
united  in  the  feeling  of  humanity,  with  its  reconciliatory  and 
pitying  gentleness  toward  the  beggar  or  the  criminal. 

(a)    The  Humanitarian  Ideal. 

§  258.  The  Oriental-theocratic  education  is  immanent  in 
Christian  education  through  the  Bible.  Through  the  media- 
tion of  the  Greek  and  Roman  churches  the  views  of  the  an- 


144  The  Philanthropic  Ideal. 

cient  world  were  subsumed  but  not  entirely  subdued.  To 
accomplish  this  was  the  problem  of  humanitarian  educa- 
tion. It  aimed  to  teach  the  Latin  and  Greek  languages, 
expecting  thus  to  secure  the  action  of  a  purely  humane  dis- 
position. The  Greeks  and  Romans  being  sharply  marked 
nationalities,  how  could  one  cherish  such  expectations  ?  It 
was  possible  only  relatively  in  contradiction,  partly  to  a  pro- 
vincial population  from  whom  all  genuine  political  sense  had 
departed,  partly  to  a  church  limited  by  a  confessional,  to 
which  the  idea  of  humanity  as  such  had  become  almost  lost 
in  dogmatic  fault-findings.  The  spirit  was  refreshed  in  the 
first  by  the  contemplation  of  the  pure  patriotism  of  the  an- 
cients, and  in  the  second  by  the  discovery  of  Reason  among 
the  heathen.  In  contrast  to  formlessness  distracted  by  the 
want  of  all  ideal  of  culture  of  provincialism  and  dogmatic 
confusions,  we  find  the  power  of  representation  of  ancient 
art.  The  so-called  uselessness  of  learning  dead  languages 
imparted  to  the  mind,  it  knew  not  how,  an  ideal  drift.  The 
very  fact  that  it  could  not  find  immediate  profit  in  its  knowl- 
edge gave  it  the  consciousness  of  a  higher  value  than  mate- 
rial profit.  The  ideal  of  the  Humanities  was  the  truth  to 
Nature  which  was  found  in  the  thought-painters  of  the  an- 
cient world.  The  study  of  language  merely  with  regard  to 
its  form,  must  lead  one  involuntarily  to  the  actual  seizing  of 
its  content.  The  Latin  schools  were  fashioned  into  Gymna- 
sia, and  the  universities  contained  not  merely  professors  of 
Eloquence,  but  also  teachers  of  Philology. 

(b)    The  Philanthropic  Ideal. 

§  259.  The  humanitarian  tendency  reached  its  extreme  in 
the  abstract  forgetting  of  the  (present,  and  the  omitting  to 
notice  its  just  claim.  Man  discovered  at  last  that  he  was  not 
at  home  with  himself  in  Rome  and  Athens.  He  spoke  and 
wrote  Latin,  if  not  like  Cicero,  at  least  like  Muretius,  but  he 
often  found  himself  awkward  in  expressing  his  meaning  in 
his  mother-tongue.  He  was  often  very  learned,  but  he  lacked 
judgment.  He  was  filled  with  enthusiasm  for  the  republi- 
canism of  Greece  and  Rome,  and  yet  at  the  same  time  was 
himself  exceedingly  servile  to  his  excellent  and  august  lords. 
Against  this  gradual  deadening  of  active  individuality,  the 
result  of  a  perverted  study  of  the  classics,  we  find  now  react- 


The  Philanthropic  Ideal.  145 

ing  the  education  of  enlightenment,  which  we  generally  call 
the  philanthropic.  It  sought  to  make  men  friendly  to  the 
immediate  course  of  the 'world.  It  placed  over  against  the 
learning  of  the  ancient  languages  for  their  own  sake,  the 
acquisition  of  the  more  needful  branches  of  Mathematics, 
Physics,  Geography,  History,  and  the  modern  languages, 
calling  these  the  real  studies.  Nevertheless  it  often  retained 
the  instruction  in  the  Latin  language  because  the  Romance 
languages  have  sprung  from  it,  and  because,  through  its  long 
domination,  the  universal  terminology  of  Science,  Art,  and 
Law,  is  rooted  in  it.  Philanthropy  desired  to  develope  the 
social  side  of  its  disciple  through  an  abstract  of  practical 
knowledge  and  personal  accomplishments,  and  to  lead  him 
again,  in  opposition  to  the  hermit-like  sedentary  life  of  the 
book-pedant,  out  into  the  fields  and  the  woods.  It  desired 
to  imitate  life  even  in  its  method,  and  to  instruct  pleasantly 
in  the  way  of  play  or  by  dialogue.  It  would  add  to  the  sim- 
ple letters  and  names  the  contemplation  of  the  object  itself, 
or  at  least  of  its  representation  by  pictures ;  and  in  this  di- 
rection, in  the  conversation-literature  which  it  prepared  for 
children,  it  sometimes  fell  into  childishness.  It  performed 
a  great  service  when  it  gave  to  the  body  its  due,  and  intro- 
duced simple,  natural  dress,  bathing,  gymnastics,  pedestrian 
excursions,  and  a  hardening  against  the  influences  of  wind  and 
weather.  As  this  Pedagogics,  so  friendly  to  children,  deemed 
that  it  could  not  soon  enough  begin  to  honor  them  as  citizens 
of  the  world,  it  was  guilty  in  general  of  the  error  of  presup- 
posing as  already  finished  in  its  children  much  that  it  itself 
should  have  gradually  developed ;  and  as  it  wished  to  edu- 
cate the  European  as  such,  or  rather  man  as  such,  it  came 
into  an  indifference  concerning  the  concrete  distinctions  of 
nationality  and  religion.  It  coincided  with  the  philologists 
in  placing,  in  a  concealed  way,  Socrates  above  Christ,  be- 
cause he  had  worked  no  miracles,  and  taught  only  morality. 
In  such  a  dead  cosmopolitanism,  individuality  disappeared 
in  the  indeterminateness  of  a  general  humanity,  and  saw 
itself  forced  to  agree  with  the  humanistic  education  in  pro- 
claiming the  truth  of  Nature  as  the  pedagogical  ideal,  with 
the  distinction,  that  while  Humanism  believed  this  ideal  real- 
ized in  the  Greeks  and  Romans,  Philanthropism  found  itself 


146  The  Philanthropic  Ideal. 

compelled  to  presuppose  an  abstract  notion,  and  often  mani- 
fested a  not  unjustifiable  pleasure  in  recognizing  in  the  Indi- 
ans of  North  America,  or  of  Otaheite,  the  genuine  man  of 
nature.  Philosophy  first  raised  these  conceptions  to  the  idea 
of  the  State,  which  fashioned  the  cognition  of  Reason  and  of 
the  reform  which  follows  from  its  idea,  into  an  organic  ele- 
ment in  itself. 

— The  course  which  the  developing  of  the  philanthropic 
ideal  has  taken  is  as  follows :  (1)  Rousseau  in  his  writings, 
Emile  and  the  Nouvelle  Heloise,  first  preached  the  evangel 
of  Natural  Education,  the  abstraction  from  History,  the  nega- 
tion of  existing  culture,  and  the  return  to  the  simplicity  and 
innocence  of  nature.  Although  he  often  himself  testified  in 
his  experience  his  own  proneness  to  evil  in  a  very  discourag- 
ing way,  he  fixed  as  an  almost  unlimited  axiom  in  French 
and  German  Pedagogics  his  principal  maxim,  that  man  is  by 
nature  good.  (2)  The  reformatory  ideas  of  Rousseau  met 
with  only  a  very  infrequent  and  sporadic  introduction  among 
the  Romanic  nations,  because  among  them  education  was 
too  dependent  on  the  church,  and  retained  its  cloister  like 
seclusion  in  seminaries,  colleges,  &c.  In  Germany,  on  the 
the  contrary,  it  was  actualized,  and  the  Philanthropia,  esta- 
blished by  Basedow  in  Dessau,  Brunswick,  and  Schnepfen- 
thal,  made  experiments,  which  nevertheless  very  soon  de- 
parted somewhat  from  the  ultraism  of  Basedow  and  had  very 
excellent  results.  (3)  Humanity  existed  in  concrete  only  in 
the  form  of  nations.  The  French  nation,  in  their  revolution, 
tried  the  experiment  of  abstracting  from  their  history,  of  lev- 
elling all  distinctions  of  culture,  of  enthroning  a  despotism 
of  Reason,  and  of  organizing  itself  as  humanity,  pure  and 
simple.  The  event  showed  the  impossibility  of  such  a  be- 
ginning. The  national  energy,  the  historical  impulse,  the 
love  of  art  and  science,  came  forth  from  the  midst  of  the  revo- 
lutionary abstraction,  which  was  opposed  to  them,  only  the 
more  vigorously.  The  grande  nation,  their  grande  armee, 
and  gloire — that  is  to  say,  for  France  —  absorbed  all  the 
humanitarian  phases.  In  Germany  the  philanthropic  circle 
of  education  was  limited  to  the  higher  ranks.  There  was  no 
exclusiveness  in  the  Philanthropia,  for  there  nobles  and  citi- 
zens, Catholics  and  Protestants,  Russians  and  Swiss,  were 
mingled ;  but  these  were  always  the  children  of  wealthy 


The  Philanthropic  Ideal.  147 

families,  and  to  these  the  plan  of  education  was  adapted. 
Then  appeared  Pestalozzi  and  directed  education  also  to  the 
lower  classes  of  society — those  which  are  called,  not  without 
something  approaching  to  a  derogatory  meaning,  the  people. 
From  this  time  dates  popular  education,  the  effort  for  the 
intellectual  and  moral  elevation  of  the  hitherto  neglected 
atomistic  human  being  of  the  non-property-holding  multi- 
tude. There  shall  in  future  be  no  dirty,  hungry,  ignorant, 
awkward,  thankless,  and  will-less  mass,  devoted  alone  to  an 
animal  existence.  "We  can  never  rid  ourselves  of  the  lower 
classes  by  having  the  wealthy  give  something,  or  even  their 
all,  to  the  poor,  so  as  to  have  no  property  themselves;  but 
we  can  rid  ourselves  of  it  in  the  sense  that  the  possibility  of 
culture  and  independent  self-support  shall  be  open  to  every 
one,  because  he  is  a  human  being  and  a  citizen  of  the  com- 
monwealth. Ignorance  and  rudeness  and  the  vice  which 
springs  from  them,  and  the  malevolent  frame  of  mind  against 
the  human  race,  which  are  bound  up  with  crime— these  shall 
disappear.  Education  shall  train  man  to  self-conscious  obe- 
dience to  law,  as  well  as  to  kindly  feeling  towards  the  err- 
ing, and  to  an  effort  not  merely  for  their  removal  but  for  their 
improvement.  But  the  more  Pestalozzi  endeavored  to  realize 
his  ideal  of  human  dignity,  the  more  he  comprehended  that 
the  isolated  power  of  a  private  man  could  not  attain  it,  but 
that  the  nation  itself  must  make  their  own  education  their 
first  business.  Fichte  by  his  lectures  first  made  the  German 
nation  fully  accept  these  thoughts,  and  Prussia  was  the  first 
state  which,  by  her  public  schools  and  her  conscious  prepa- 
ration for  defence,  broke  the  path  for  National  Education  ; 
while  among  the  Romanic  nations,  in  spite  of  their  more 
elaborate  political  formalism,  it  still  depends  partly  upon 
the  church  and  partly  upon  the  accident  of  private  enter- 
prise. Pestalozzi  also  laid  a  foundation  for  a  national  peda- 
gogical literature  by  his  story  of  Leonard  and  Gertrude. 
This  book  appeared  at  first  in  1784,  i.e.  in  the  same  year  in 
which  Schiller's  Robbers  and  Kant's  Critique  of  Pure  Reason 
announced  a  new  phase  in  the  Drama  and  in  Philosophy. 

— The  incarnation  of  God,  which  was,  up  to  the  time  of  the 
Reformation,  an  esoteric  mystery  of  the  Church,  has  since 
then  become  continually  more  and  more  an  exoteric  problem 
of  the  State. — 


148N  Free  Education. 

S.    Free  Education. 

§  260.   The  ideal  of  culture  of  the  humanitarian  and  the 
philanthropic  education  was  taken  up  into  the  conception  of 
an  education  which  recognizes  the  Family,  social  caste,  the 
Nation,  and  Religion,  as  positive  elements  of  the  practical 
spirit,  but  which  will  know  each  of  these  as  determined  from 
within  through  the  idea  of  humanity,  and  laid  open  for  recip- 
rocal dialectic  with  the  rest.   Physical  development  shall  be- 
come the  subject  of  a  national  system  of  gymnastics  fashioned 
for  use,  and  including  in  itself  the  knowledge  of  the  use  of 
arms.   Instruction  shall,  in  respect  to  the  general  encyclopae- 
dic culture,  be  the  same  for  all,  and  parallel  to  this  shall  run 
a  system  of  special  schools  to  prepare  for  the  special  avoca- 
tions of  life.    The  method  of  instruction  shall  be  the  simple 
representation  of  the  special  idea  of  the   subject,  and   no 
longer  the  formal  breadth  of  an   acquaintance  with  many 
subjects  which  may  find  outside  the  school  its  opportunity, 
but  within  it  has  no  meaning  except  as  the  history  of  a  sci- 
ence or  an  art.   Moral  culture  must  be  combined  with  family 
affection  and  the  knowledge  of  the  laws  of  the  commonwealth, 
so  that  the   dissension  between   individual   morality  and 
objective  legality  may  ever  more  and  more  disappear.    Edu- 
cation shall,  without  estranging  the  individual  from  the  inter- 
nality  of  the  family,  accustom  him  more  and  more  to  public 
life,  because  criticism  of  this  is  the  only  thing  which  can 
prevent  the  cynicism  of  private  life,  the  half-ness  of  knowl- 
edge and  will,  and  the  spirit  of  caste,  which  has  so  exten- 
sively prevailed.    The  individual  shall  be  educated  into  a 
self-consciousness  of  the  essential  equality  and  freedom  of 
all  men,  so  that  he  shall  recognize  and  acknowledge  himself 
in  each  one  and  in  all.    But  this  essential  and  solid  unity  of 
all  men  shall  not  evaporate  into  the  insipidity  of  a  humanity 
without  distinctions,  but  instead  it  shall  realize  the  form  of 
a  determinate  individuality  and  nationality,  and  shall  en- 
lighten the  idiosyncrasy  of  its  nation  into  a  broad  humanity. 
The  unrestricted  striving  after  Beauty,  Truth,  and  Freedom, 
actually   through  its   own   strength   and  immediately,  not 
merely   mediately  through   ecclesiastical  consecration,  will 
become  Religion. 

The  Education  of  the  State  must  rise  to  a  preparation  for 
the  unfettered  activity  of  self-conscious  Humanity. 


THE  SCIENCE  OF  EDUCATION. 


A  PARAPHRASE   OF  DR.  KARL   ROSENKRANZ'S 
PAEDAGOGIK  ALS   SYSTEM. 


BY   ANNA   C.   BRACKETT 


ST.    LOUIS: 
G.  I.  JONES   AND   COMPANY. 

1878. 


LB675- 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1878,  by 

WILLIAM  T.  HARRIS, 
In  the  office  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress,  at  Washington. 


PREFACE. 


The  translation  of  ' '  Pedagogics  as  a  System ' '  was  prepared  and 
published  five  years  ago.  The  wide  demand  for  it  that  has  made 
itself  known  since  that  time,  especially  in  normal  schools,  has  proved 
the  value  of  such  works  in  the"  domain  of  education.  At  the  same 
time,  the  difficulty  the  students  have  always  found  in  its  use — a  diffi- 
culty inseparable  from  any  translation  of  a  German  metaphysical 
treatise — has  led  us  to  the  conviction  that  a  paraphrase  into  a  more 
easily  understood  form  is  a  necessity,  if  the  thought  of  Rosenkranz 
is  to  be  appropriated  by  the  very  class  who  are  most  in  need  of  it. 
As  was  remarked  in  the  preface  to  the  translation,  we  have  in  English 
no  other  work  of  similar  size  which  contains  so  much  that  is  valuable 
to  those  engaged  in  the  work  of  education.  It  is  no  compendium  of 
rules  or  formulas,  but  rather  a  systematic,  logical  treatment  of  the 
subject,  in  which  the  attention  is,  as  it  were,  concentrated  upon  the 
whole  problem  of  education,  while  that  problem  is  allowed  to  work 
itself  out  before  us.  To  paraphrase  the  text — or,  rather,  to  translate 
it  from  the  metaphysical  language  in  which  it  at  present  appears  into 
a  language  more  easy  of  comprehension — without  losing  the  real  sig- 
nificance of  the  statements,  is  the  task  which  is  here  undertaken. 
Free  illustrations  and  suggestions  have  been  interwoven  to  give  point 
and  application  to  the  thoughts  and  principles  stated.  This  transla- 
tion, or  paraphrase,  follows  the  paragraphs  of  the  original  and  of  the 
first  translation.  The  analysis  of  the  whole  work,  as  it  appeared  in 
the  original  translation,  is  appended  at  the  end  of  the  "Introduc- 
tion," as  a  guide  to  the  student. 


THE  SCIENCE  OF  EDUCATION. 


INTEODUCTION. 

§  1.  The  science  of  Pedagogics  may  be  called  a  second- 
ary science,  inasmuch  as  it  derives  its  principles  from  others. 
In  this  respect  it  differs  from  Mathematics,  which  is  independ- 
ent. As  it  concerns  the  development  of  the  human  intelli- 
gence, it  must  wait  upon  Psychology  for  an  understanding  of 
that  upon  which  it  is  to  operate,  and,  as  its  means  are  to  be 
sciences  and  arts,  it  must  wait  upon  them  for  a  knowledge  of 
Its  materials.  The  science  of  Medicine,  in  like  manner,  is 
dependent  on  the  sciences  of  Biology,  Chemistry,  Physics, 
etc.  Moreover,  as  Medicine  may  have  to  deal  with  a  healthy 
or  unhealthy  body,  and  may  have  it  for  its  province  to  pre- 
serve or  restore  health,  to  assist  a  natural  process  (as  in  the 
case  of  a  broken  bone),  or  to  destroy  an  unnatural  one  (as  in 
the  case  of  the  removal  of  a  tumor),  the  same  variety  of  work 
is  imposed  upon  Education.1 

§  2.  Since  the  rules  of  Pedagogics  must  be  extremely 
flexible,  so  that  they  may  be  adapted  to  the  great  variety  of 
minds,  and  since  an  infinite  variety  of  circumstances  may  arise 
in  their  application,  we  find,  as  we  should  expect,  in  all  edu- 
cational literature  room  for  widely  differing  opinions  and  the 
wildest  theories ;  these  numerous  theories,  each  of  which 

1  The  parallelism  between  these  two  sciences,  Medicine  and  Education,  is  an 
•obvious  point,  which  every  student  will  do  well  to  consider. 


6  The  Science  of  Education. 

may  have  a  strong  influence  for  a  season,  only  to  be  over- 
thrown and  replaced  by  others.2  It  must  be  acknowledged 
that  educational  literature,  as  such,  is  not  of  a  high  order. 
It  habits  cant  like  religious  literature.  Many  of  its  faults, 
however,  are  the  result  of  honest  eifort,  on  the  part  of  teach- 
ers, to  remedy  existing  defects,  and  .the  authors  are,  therefore, 
not  harshly  to  be  blamed.  It  is  also  to  be  remembered  that 
the  habit  of  giving  reproof  and  advice  is  one  fastened  in  them 
by  the  daily  necessity  of  their  professional  work.3 

§  3.  As  the  position  of  the  teacher  has  ceased  to  be 
undervalued,  there  has  been  an  additional  impetus  given  to 
self-glorification  on  his  part,  and  this  also — in  connection  with 
the  fact  that  schools  are  no  longer  isolated  as  of  old,  but  sub- 
ject to  constant  comparison  and  competition — leads  to  much 
careless  theorizing  among  its  teachers,  especially  in  the  literary 
field. 

§  4.  Pedagogics,  because  it  deals  with  the  human  spirit, 
belongs,  in  a  general  classification  of  the  sciences,  to  the 
philosophy  of  spirit,  and  in  the  philosophy  of  spirit  it  must  be 
classified  under  the  practical,  and  not  the  merely  theoretical, 
division.  For  its  problem  is  not  merely  to  comprehend  the 
nature  of  that  with  which  it  has  to  deal,  the  human  spirit — 
its  problem  is  not  merely  to  influence  one  mind  (that  of  the 
pupil)  by  another  (that  of  the  teacher) — but  to  influence  it 
in  such  a  way  as  to  produce  the  mental  freedom  of  the  pupil. 
The  problem  is,  therefore,  not  so  much  to  obtain  performed 
works  as  to  excite  mental  activity.  A  creative  process  is 
required.  The  pupil  is  to  be  forced  to  go  in  certain  beaten 
tracks,  and  yet  he  is  to  be  so  forced  to  go  in  these  that  he  shall 
go  of  his  own  free  will.  All  teaching  which  does  not  leave 
the  mind  of  the  pupil  fre,e  is  unworthy  of  the  name.  It  is 
true  that  the  teacher  must  understand  the  nature  of  mind,  as 


2  This  will  again  remind  the  student  of  the  theories  of  treatment  in  medicine 
in  diseases  which,  in  the  seventeenth  century,  were  treated  only  by  bleeding  and 
emetics,  are  now  treated  by  nourishing  food,  and  no  medicines,  etc. 

3  The  teacher  will  do  well  to  consider  the  probable  result  of  the  constant  asso- 
ciation with  mental  inferiors  entailed  by  his  work,  and  also  to  consider  what 
counter-irritant  is  to  be  applied  to  balance,  in  his  character,  this  unavoidable- 
tendency. 


TJie  Science  of  Education.  1 

he  is  to  deal  with  mind,  but  when  he  has  done  this  he  has  still 
his  main  principle  of  action  unsolved  ;  for  the  question  is, 
knowing  the  nature  of  the  mind,  How  shall  he  incite  it  to 
action,  already  predetermined  in  his  own  mind,  without 
depriving  the  mind  of  the  pupil  of  its  own  free  action?  How 
shall  he  restrain  and  guide,  and  yet  not  enslave? 

If,  in  classifying  all  sciences,  as  suggested  at  the  beginning 
of  this  section,  we  should  subdivide  the  practical  division  of  the 
Philosophy  of  Spirit,  which  might  be  called  Ethics,  one  could 
find  a  place  for  Pedagogics  under  some  one  of  the  grades  of 
Ethics.  The  education  which  the  child  receives  through  the 
influence  of  family  life  lies  at  the  basis  of  all  other  teaching, 
and  what  the  child  learns  of  life,  its  duties,  and  possibilities, 
in  its  own  home,  forms  the  foundation  for  all  after-work.  On 
the  life  of  the  family,  then,  as  a  presupposition,  all  systems  of 
Education  must  be  built.  In  other  words,  the  school  must 
not  attempt  to  initiate  the  child  into  the  knowledge  of  the 
world — it  must  not  assume  the  care  of  its  first  training  ;  that 
it  must  leave  to  the  family.4  But  the  science  of  Pedagogics 
does  not,  as  a  science,  properly  concern  itself  with  the  family 
education,  or  with  that  point  of  the  child's  life  which  is  domi- 
nated by  the  family  influence.  That  is  education,  in  a  certain 
sense,  without  doubt,  but  it  does  not  properly  belong  to  a 
science  of  Pedagogics.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  it  must  be 
remembered  that  this  science,  as  here  expounded,  presupposes 
a  previous  family  life  in  the  human  being  with  whom  it  has  to 
deal. 

§  5.  Education  as  a  science  will  present  the  necessary 
and  universal  principles  on  which  it  is  based  ;  Education  as 
an  art  will  consist  in  the  practical  realization  of  these  in  the 
teacher's  work  in  special  places,  under  special  circumstances, 
and  with  special  pupils.  In  the  skillful  application  of  the 
principles  of  the  science  to  the  actual  demands  of  the  art  lies 
the  opportunity  for  the  educator  to  prove  himself  a  creative 
artist ;  and  it  is  in  the  difficulty  involved  in  this  practical 


4  The  age  at  which  the  child  should  be  subject  to  the  training  of  school  life,  or 
Education,  properly  so-called,  must  vary  with  different  races,  nations,  and  differ- 
ent children. 


8  The  Science  of  Education. 

work  that  the  interest  and  charm  of  the  educator's  work 
consists. 

The  teacher  must  thus  adapt  himself  to  the  pupil.  But,  in 
doing  so,  he  must  have  a  care  that  he  do  not  carry  this  adapta- 
tion to  such  a  degree  as  to  imply  that  the  pupil  is  not  to 
change  ;  and  he  must  see  to  it,  also,  that  the  pupil  shall  always 
be  worked  upon  by  the  matter  which  he  is  considering,  and 
not  too  much  by  the  personal  influence  of  the  teacher  through 
whom  he  receives  it.5 

§  6.  The  utmost  care  is  necessary  lest  experiments  which 
have  proved  successful  in  certain  cases  should  be  generalized 
into  rules,  and  a  formal,  dead  creed,  so  to  speak,  should  be 
adopted.  All  professional  experiences  are  valuable  as  mate- 
rial on  which  to  base  new  conclusions  and  to  make  new  plans, 
but  only  for  that  use.  Unless  the  day's  work  is,  every  day,  a 
new  creation,  a  fatal  error  has  been  made. 

§   7.    Pedagogics  as  a  science  must  consider  Education — 

( 1 )    In  its  general  idea  ; 

(  2  )    In  its  different  phases  ; 

(3)  In  the  special  systems  arising  from  this  general  idea, 
acting  under  special  circumstances  at  special  times.6 

§  8.  With  regard  to  the  First  Part,  we  remark  that  by  Edu- 
cation, in  its  general  idea,  we  do  not  mean  any  mere  history  of 
Pedagogics,  nor  can  anyjiistory  of  Pedagogics  be  substituted 
for  a  systematic  exposition  of  the  underlying  idea. 

§  9.  The  second  division  considers  Education  under  three 
heads — as  physical,  intellectual,  and  moral — and  forms,  gen- 
erally, the  principal  part  of  all  pedagogical  treatises. 

In  this  part  lies  the  greatest  difficulty  as  to  exact  limita- 
tion. The  ideas  on  these  divisions  are  often  undefined  and 
apt  to  be  confounded,  and  the  detail  of  which  they  are  capa- 
ble is  almost  unlimited,  for  we  might,  under  this  head,  speak 


•"'  The  best  educator  is  he  who  makes  his  pupils  independent  of  himself.  This 
implies  on  the  teacher's  part  an  ability  to  lose  himself  in  his  work,  and  a  desire 
for  the  real  growth  of  the  pupil,  independent  of  any  personal  fame  of  his  own — 
a  disinterestedness  which  places  education  on  a  level  with  the  noblest  occupations 
of  man. 

6  See  analysis. 


The  Science  of  Education.  9 

•of  all    kinds  of  special  schools,  such  as  those  for  war,  art, 
mining,  etc. 

§  10.  In  the  Third  Part  we  consider  the  different  realizations 
of  the  one  general  idea  of  Pedagogics  as  it  has  developed  itself 
under  different  circumstances  and  in  different  ages  of  the  world. 

O 

The  general  idea  is  forced  into  different  phases  by  the 
varying  physical,  intellectual,  and  moral  conditions  of  men. 
The  result  is  the  different  systems,  as  shown  in  the  analysis. 
The  general  idea  is  one.  The  view  of  the  end  to  be  obtained 
determines  in  each  case  the  actualization  of  this  idea.  Hence 
the  different  systems  of  Education  are  each  determined  by  the 
stand-point  from  which  the  general  ideal  is  viewed.  Proceed- 
ing in  this  manner,  it  might  be  possible  to  construct  a  history 
of  Pedagogics,  a  priori,  without  reference  to  actual  history, 
since  all  the  possible  systems  might  be  inferred  from  the 
possible  definite  number  of  points  of  view. 

Each  lower  stand-point  will  lead  to  a  higher,  but  it  will  not 
be  lost  in  it.  Thus,  where  Education,  for  the  sake  of  the 
nation,7  merges  into  the  Education  based  on  Christianity,  the 
form  is  not  thereby  destroyed,  but,  rather,  in  the  transition 
first  attains  its  full  realization.  The  systems  of  Education 
which  were  based  on  the  idea  of  the  nation  had,  in  the  full- 
ness of  time,  outgrown  their  own  limits,  and  needed  a  new 
form  in  order  to  contain  their  own  true  idea.  The  idea  of  the 
nation,  as  the  highest  principle,  gives  way  for  that  of  Chris- 
tianity. A  new  life  came  to  the  old  idea  in  what  at  first 
seemed  to  be  its  destruction.  The  idea  of  the  nation  was 
born  again,  and  not  destroyed,  in  Christianity. 

§  11.  The  final  system,  so  far,  is  that  of  the  present  time, 
which  thus  is  itself  the  fruit  of  all  the  past  systems,  as  well  as 
the  seed  of  all  systems  that  are  to  be.  The  science  of  Pedagog- 
ics, in  the  consideration  of  the  system  of  the  present,  thus  again 
finds  embodied  the  general  idea  of  education,  and  thus  returns 
upon  itself  to  the  point  from  whence  it  set  out.  In  the  First 
and  Second  Parts  there  is  already  given  the  idea  which  domi- 
nates the  system  found  thus  necessarily  existing  in  the  present. 


7  Asiatic  systems  of  Education  have  this  basis  (see  $  178  of  the  original). 


10 


The  Science  of  Education. 


FIRST  PART.     (  Its  Nature. 
In  its  General  <  Its  Form. 
Idea.  L  Its  Limits. 

SECOND  PART,  f  Physical. 
In   its  Special  <  Intellectual. 
Elements.        L  Moral. 


Education. 


f  Family  .    .    China. 
Passive.              i  Caste.    .    .    India. 
I  Monkish    .    Thibet. 

National. 

fMilitary.    .    Persia. 
Active.                <  Priestly.    .    Egypt. 
(.Industrial.    Phoenicia. 

Theocratic. 

f  ..Esthetic  .    Greece. 
Individual           J  I>r'ictiual   .    Rome. 
1  Abstract      (  Northern 
(.Individual.  |  Barbarians 

THIRD  PART. 
In  its  Particu-  • 
lar  Systems. 

Monkish. 

Chivalric. 

Humanita- 
rian. 

'For  Special  I  Jesuitic. 
Callings.      (  Pietistic. 

{The   Hu- 
manities. 
The 
anth™,!!« 

Movement^ 

I  For  Free  Citizenship. 

The  Science  of  Education.  11 


FIRST  PART. 
The  General  Idea  of  Education. 

§   12.    A  full  treatment  of  Pedagogics  must  distinguish — 

( 1 )  The  nature  of  Education  ; 

(2)  The  form  of  Education  ; 

(3)  The  limits  of  Education. 

/. — The  Nature  of  Education. 

§  13.  The  nature  of  Education  is  determined  by  the  nature  of 
mind,  the  distinguishing  mark  of  which  is  that  it  can  be  devel- 
oped only  from  within,  and  by  its  own  activity.  Mind  is  es- 
sentially free — i.  e.,  it  has  the  capacity  for  freedom — but  it 
cannot  be  said  to  possess  freedom  till  it  has  obtained  it  by  its 
own  voluntary  effort.  Till  then  it  cannot  be  truly  said  to  be 
free.  Education  consists  in  enabling  a  human  being  to  take 
possession  of,  and  to  develop  himself  by,  his  own  efforts,  and 
the  work  of  the  educator  cannot  be  said  to  be  done  in  any 
sense  where  this  is  not  accomplished.  In  general,  we  may 
say  that  the  work  of  education  consists  in  leading  to  a  full 
development  of  all  the  inherent  powers  of  the  mind,  and  that 
its  work  is  done  when,  in  this  way,  the  mind  has  attained 
perfect  freedom,  or  the  state  in  which  alone  it  can  be  said  to 
be  truly  itself.7 

The  isolated  human  being  can  never  become  truly  man.  If 
such  human  beings  (like  the  wild  girl  of  the  forest  of  Arden- 
nes) have  been  found,  they  have  only  proved  to  us  that  recip- 
rocal action  with  our  fellow  beings  is  necessary  for  the  devel- 


7  The  definition  of  freedom  here  implied  is  this :   Mind  is  free  when  it  knosw 
itself  and  wills  its  own  laws. 


12  The  Science  of  Education. 

opment  of  our  powers.  Caspar  Hauser,  in  his  subterranean 
prison,  will  serve  as  an  example  of  what  man  would  be  without 
men.  One  might  say  that  this  fact  is  typified  by  the  first  cry 
of  the  newly-born  child.  It  is  as  if  the  first  expression  of  its 
seemingly  independent  life  were  a  cry  for  help  from  others. 
On  the  side  of  nature  the  human  being  is  at  first  quite  helpless. 

§  14.  Man  is,  therefore,  the  only  proper  object  of  education. 
It  is  true  that  we  speak  of  the  education  of  plants  and  of  animals, 
but  we  instinctively  apply  other  terms  when  we  do  so,  for  we 
say  "raising"  plants,  and  "  training  "  animals.  When  we 
"  train  "  or  "  break  "  an  animal,  it  is  true  that  we  do,  by  pain 
or  pleasure,  lead  him  into  an  exercise  of  a  new  activity.  But 
the  difference  between  this  and  Education  consists  in  the  fact 
that,  though  he  possessed  capacity,  yet  by  no  amount  of  asso- 
ciation with  his  kind  would  he  ever  have  acquired  this  new 
development.  It  is  as  if  we  impress  upon  his  plastic  nature 
the  imprint  of  our  loftier  nature,  which  imprint  he  takes 
mechanically,  and  does  not  himself  recognize  it  as  his  own 
internal  nature.  We  train  him  for  our  recognition,  not  for  his 
own.  But,  on  the  contrary,  when  we  educate  a  human  being, 
we  only  excite  him  to  create  for  himself,  and  out  of  himself, 
that  for  which  he  would  most  earnestly  strive  had  he  any 
appreciation  of  it  beforehand,  and  in  proportion  as  he  does 
appreciate  it  he  recognizes  it  joyfully  as  a  part  of  himself,  as 
his  own  inheritance,  which  he  appropriates  with  a  knowledge 
that  it  is  his,  or,  rather,  is  a  part  of  his  own  nature.  He 
who  speaks  of  "  raising  "  human  beings  uses  language  which 
belongs  only  to  the  slave-dealer,  to  whom  human  beings  are 
onty  cattle  for  labor,  and  whose  property  increases  in  value 
with  the  number. 

Are  there  no  school-rooms  where  Education  has  ceased  to 
have  any  meaning,  and  where  physical  pain  is  made  to  produce 
its  only  possible  result — a  mechanical,  external  repetition  ?  The 
school-rooms  where  the  creative  word — the  only  thing  which 
can  influence  the  mind — has  ceased  to  be  used  as  the  means 
are  only  plantations,  where  human  beings  are  degraded  to  the 
position  of  lower  animals. 

§   15.    When    we    speak   of  the   Education  of   the  human 


The  Science  of  Education.  13 

race,  we  mean  the  gradual  growth  of  the  nations  of  the  earth, 
as  a  whole,  towards  the  realization  of  self-conscious  freedom. 
Divine  Providence  is  the  teacher  here.  The  means  by  which 
the  development  is  effected  are  the  various  circumstances  and 
actions  of  the  different  races  of  men,  and  the  pupils  are  the 
nations.  The  unfolding  of  this  great  Education  is  generally 
treated  of  under  the  head  of  Philosophy  of  History. 

§  16.  Education,  however,  in  a  more  restricted  sense, 
has  to  do  with  the  shaping  of  the  individual.  Each  one  of  us 
is  to  be  educated  by  the  laws  of  physical  nature — by  the  rela- 
tions into  which  we  come  with  the  national  life,  in  its  laws, 
customs,  etc.,  and  by  the  circumstances  which  daily  surround 
us.  By  the  force  of  these  Ave  find  our  arbitrary  will  hemmed 
in,  modified,  and  forced  to  take  new  channels  and  forms.  We 
are  too  often  unmindful  of  the  power  with  which  these  forces 
are  daily  and  hourly  educating  us — i.  e. ,  calling  out  our  possi- 
bilities into  real  existence.  If  we  set  up  our  will  in  opposition 
to  either  of  these  ;  if  we  act  in  opposition  to  the  laws  of  nature  ; 
if  we  seriously  offend  the  laws,  or  even  the  customs,  of 
the  people  among  whom  we  live ;  or  if  we  despise  our 
individual  lot,  we  do  so  only  to  find  ourselves  crushed  in 
the  encounter.  We  only  learn  the  impotence  of  the  indi- 
vidual against  these  mighty  powers  ;  and  that  discovery  is, 
of  itself,  a  part  of  our  education.  It  is  sometimes  only  by 
such  severe  means  that  God  is  revealed  to  the  man  who  per- 
sistently misunderstands  and  defies  His  creation.  All  suffering 
brought  on  ourselves  by  our  own  violation  of  laws,  whether 
natural,  ethical,  or  divine,  must  be,  however,  thus  recognized 
as  the  richest  blessing.  We  do  not  mean  to  'say  that  it  is 
never  allowable  for  a  man,  in  obedience  to  the  highest  laws  of 
his  spiritual  being,  to  break  away  from  the  fetters  of  nature — 
to  offend  the  ethical  sense  of  his  own  people,  or  to  struggle 
against  the  might  of  destiny.  Reformers  and  martyrs 
would  be  examples  of  such,  and  our  remarks  above  do  not 
apply  to  them,  but  to  the  perverse,  the  frivolous,  and  the  con- 
ceited ;  to  those  who  are  seeking  in  their  action,  not  the  un- 
doubted will  of  God,  but  their  own  individual  will  or  caprice. 

§   17.    But  we  generally  use  the  word  Education  in  a  still 


14  The  Science  of  Education. 

narrower  sense  than  either  of  these,  for  we  mean  by  it  the 
working  of  one  individual  mind  upon  or  within  another  in 
some  definite  and  premeditated  way,  so  as  to  fit  the  pupil  for 
life  generally,  or  for  some  special  pursuit.  For  this  end  the 
educator  must  be  relatively  finished  in  his  own  education,  and 
the  pupil  must  possess  confidence  in  him,  or  docility.  He 
must  be  teachable.  That  the  work  be  successful,  demands  the 
very  highest  degree  of  talent,  knowledge,  skill,  and  pru- 
dence ;  and  any  development  is  impossible  if  a  well-founded 
authority  be  wanting  in  the  educator,  or  docility  on  the  part 
of  the  pupil. 

Education,  in  this  narrowest  and  technical  sense,  is  an  out- 
growth of  city  or  urban  life.  As  long  as  men  do  not  congre- 
gate in  large  cities,  the  three  forces  spoken  of  in  §  16  — 
i.  e.,  the  forces  of  nature,  national  customs,  and  circum- 
stances— will  be  left  to  perform  most  of  the  work  of  Educa- 
tion ;  but,  in  modern  city  life,  the  great  complication  of 
events,  the  uncertainty  in  the  results — though  careful  fore- 
thought has  been  used — the  immense  development  of  indi- 
viduality, and  the  pressing  need  of  various  information,  break 
the  power  of  custom,  and  render  a  different  method  necessary. 
The  larger  the  city  is,  the  more  free  is  the  individual  in  it 
from  the  restraints  of  customs,  the  less  subjected  to  curious 
criticism,  and  the  more  able  is  he  to  give  play  to  his  own 
idiosyncrasies.  This,  however,  is  a  freedom  which  needs  the 
counterpoise  of  a  more  exact  training  in  conventionalities,  if 
we  would  not  have  it  dangerous.  Hence  the  rapid  multipli- 
cation of  educational  institutions  and  systems  in  modern  times 
(one  chief  characteristic  of  which  is  the  development  of  ur 
ban  life).  The  ideal  Telemachus  of  Fenelon  differs  very 
much  from  the  real  Telemachus  of  history.  Fenelon  proposed 
an  education  which  trained  a  youth  to  reflect,  and  to  guide  him- 
self by  reason.  The  Telemachus  of  the  heroic  age  followed 
the  customs  ("  use  and  wont")  of  his  times  with  naive  obe- 
dience. The  systems  of  Education  once  sufficient  do  not 
serve  the  needs  of  modern  life,  any  more  than  the  defenses 
once  sufficient  against  hostile  armies  are  sufficient  against  the 
new  weapons  adopted  by  modern  warfare. 


The  Science  of  Education.  15 

§  18.  The  problem  with  which  modern  Education  has  to 
•deal  may  be  said,  in  general  terms,  to  be  the  development  in 
the  individual  soul  of  the  indwelling  Reason,  both  practical 
(as  will)  and  theoretical  (as  intellect).  To  make  a  child 
good  is  only  a  part  of  Education ;  we  have  also  to 
develop  his  intelligence.  The  sciences  of  Ethics  and  Educa- 
tion are  not  the  same.  Again,  we  must  not  forget  that  no 
pupil  is  simply  a  human  being,  like  every  other  human 
being ;  he  is  also  an  individual,  and  thus  differs  from  every 
other  one  of  the  race.  This  is  a  point  which  must  never 
be  lost  sight  of  by  the  educator.  Human  beings  may  be — nay, 
must  be — educated  in  company,  but  they  cannot  be  educated 
simply  in  the  mass. 

§  19.  Education  is  to  lead  the  pupil  by  a  graded  series 
of  exercises,  previously  arranged  and  prescribed  by  the  edu- 
cator, to  a  definite  end.  But  these  exercises  must  take  on  a 
peculiar  form  for  each  particular  pupil  under  the  special  cir- 
cumstances present.  Hasty  and  inconsiderate  work  may,  by 
chance,  accomplish  much  ;  but  no  work  which  is  not  system- 
atic can  advance  and  fashion  him  in  conformity  with  his 
tanure,  and  such  alone  is  to  be  called  Education  ;  for  Educa- 
tion implies  both  a  comprehension  of  the  end  to  be  attained 
and  of  the  means  necessary  to  compass  that  end. 

§  20.  Culture,  however,  means  more  and  more  every 
year ;  and,  as  the  sum  total  of  knowledge  increases  for  man- 
kind, it  becomes  necessary,  in  order  to  be  a  master  in  any  one 
line,  to  devote  one's  self  almost  exclusively  to  that.  Hence 
arises,  for  the  teacher,  the  difficulty  of  preserving  the  unity  and 
wholeness  which  are  essential  to  a  complete  man.  The  prin- 
ciple of  division  of  labor  conies  in.  He  who  is  a  teacher 
by  profession  becomes  one-sided  in  his  views  ;  and,  as  teaching 
divides  and  subdivides  into  specialities,  this  abnormal  one- 
sideness  tends  more  and  more  to  appear.  Here  we  find  a  par- 
allelism in  the  profession  of  Medicine,  with  a  corresponding 
danger  of  narrowness  ;  for  that,  too,  is  in  a  process  of  con- 
stant specialization,  and  the  physician  who  treats  nervous  dis- 
eases is  likely  to  be  of  the  opinion  that  all  trouble  arises  from 
that  part  of  the  organism,  or,  at  least,  that  all  remedies  should 


16  The  Science  of  Education. 

be  applied  there.  This  tendency  to  oiie-sideness  is  inseparable 
from  the  progress  of  civilization  and  that  of  science  and  arts. 
It  contains,  nevertheless,  a  danger  of  which  no  teacher  should 
be  unwarned.  An  illustration  is  furnished  by  the  microscope 
or  telescope  ;  a  higher  power  of  the  instrument  implies  a  nar- 
rower field  of  view.  To  concentrate  our  observation  upon  one 
point  implies  the  shutting  out  of  others.  This  difficulty  with 
the  teacher  creates  one  for  the  pupil. 

In  this  view  one  might  be  inclined  to  judge  that  the  life  of 
the  savage  as  compared  with  that  of  civilized  man,  or  that  of  a 
member  of  a  rural  community  as  compared  with  that  of  an 
inhabitant  of  a  city,  were  the  more  to  be  desired.  The  savage 
has  his  hut,  his  family,  his  cocoa-palm,  his  weapons,  his  pas- 
sions ;  he  fishes,  hunts,  amuses  himself,  adorns  himself,  and 
enjoys  the  consciousness  that  he  is  the  center  of  a  little  world  ; 
while  the  denizen  of  a  city  must  often  acknowledge  that  he  is, 
so  to  speak,  only  one  wheel  of  a  gigantic  machine.  Is  the  life 
of  the  savage,  therefore,  more  favorable  to  human  develop- 
ment? The  characteristic  idea  of  modern  civilization  is  :  The 
development  of  the  individual  as  the  end  for  which  the  State 
exists.  The  great  empires  of  Persia,  Egypt,  and  India, 
wherein  the  individual  was  of  value  only  as  he  ministered  to 
the  strength  of  the  State,  have  given  way  to  the  modern 
nations,  where  individual  freedom  is  pushed  so  far  that  the 
State  seems  only  an  instrument  for  the  good  of  the  individual. 
From  being  the  supreme  end  of  the  individual,  the  State  has 
become  the  means  for  his  advancement  into  freedom  ;  and 
with  this  very  exaltation  of  the  value  of  the  mere  individual 
over  the  State,  as  such,  there  is  inseparably  connected  the  seem- 
ing: destruction  of  the  wholeness  of  the  individual  man.  But 

o 

the  union  of  State  and  individual,  which  was  in  ancient  times 
merely  mechanical,  has  now  become  a  living  process,  in  which 
constant  interaction  gives  rise  to  all  the  intellectual  life  of 
modern  civilization. 

§  21.  The  work  of  Education  being  thus  necessarily 
split  up,  we  have  the  distinction  between  general  and  special 
schools.  The  work  of  the  former  is  to  give  general  develop- 
ment— what  is  considered  essential  for  all  men  ;  that  of  the 


The  Science  of  Education.  17 

latter,  to  prepare  for  special  callings.  The  former  should 
furnish  a  basis  for  the  latter — i.  e.,  the  College  should  precede 
the  Medical  School,  etc.,  and  the  High  School  the  Normal. 
In  the  United  States,  owing  to  many  causes,  this  is  unfortu- 
nately not  the  case. 

The  difference  between  city  and  country  life  is  important 
here.  The  teacher  in  a  country  school,  and,  still  more,  the 
private  tutor  or  governess,  must  be  able  to  teach  many 
more  things  than  the  teacher  in  a  graded  school  in  the  city,  or 
the  professor  in  a  college  or  university.  The  danger  on  the 
one  side  is  of  superficiality,  on  the  other  of  narrowness. 

§  22.  The  Education  of  any  individual  can  be  only  rela- 
tively finished.  His  possibilities  are  infinite.  His  actual 
realization  of  those  possibilities  must  always  remain  far  be- 
hind. The  latter  can  only  approximate  to  the  former.  It  can 
never  reach  them.  The  term  "  finishing  an  education  "  needs, 
therefore,  some  definition  ;  for,  as  a  technical  term,  it  has  un- 
doubtedly a  meaning.  An  immortal  soul  can  never  complete 
its  development ;  for,  in  so  doing,  it  would  give  the  lie  to  its 
own  nature.  We  cannot  speak  properly,  however,  of  educat- 
ing an  idiot.  Such  an  unfortunate  has  no  power  of  generali- 
zation, and  no  conscious  personality.  We  can  train  him  me- 
chanically, but  we  cannot  educate  him.  This  will  help  to 
illustrate  the  difference,  spoken  of  in  §  14,  between  Educa- 
tion and  Mechanical  training. 

We  obtain  astonishing  results,  it  is  true,  in  our  schools  for 
idiots,  and  yet  we  cannot  fail  to  perceive  that,  after  all,  we 
have  only  an  external  result.  We  produce  a  mechanical  per- 
formance of  duties,  and  yet  there  seems  to  be  no  actual  mental 
growth.  It  is  aii  exogenous,  and  not  an  endogenous,  growth, 
to  use  the  language  of  Botany.9  Continual  repetition,  under 
the  most  gentle  patience,  renders  the  movements  easy,  but, 
after  all,  they  are  only  automatic,  or  what  the  physicians  call 
reflex. 

We  have  the  same  result  produced  in  a  less  degree  when  we 


8  Perhaps,  however  slow  the  growth,  there  is  real   progress  in  liberating  the 
imprisoned  soul  (?) 

2 


18  The  Science  of  Education. 

attempt  to  teach  an  intelligent  child  something  which  is  be- 
yond his  active  comprehension.  A  child  may  be  taught  to  do 
or  say  almost  anything  by  patient  training,  but,  if  what  he  is 
to  say  is  beyond  the  power  of  his  mental  comprehension,  and 
Jience  of  his  active  assimilation,  we  are  only  training  him  as 
we  train  an  animal  (§  14),  and  not  educating  him.  We 
call  such  recitations  parrot  recitations,  and,  by  our  use  of  the 
word,  express  exactly  in  what  position  the  pupils  are  placed. 
An  idiot  is  only  a  case  of  permanently  arrested  development. 
What  in  the  intelligent  child  is  a  passing  phase  is  for  the  idiot  a 
fixed  state.  We  have  idiots  of  all  grades,  as  we  have  children 
of  all  ages. 

The  above  observations  must  not  be  taken  to  mean  that 
children  should  never  be  taught  to  perform  operations  in  arith- 
metic which  they  do  not,  in  cant  phrase,  "  perfectly  under- 
stand," or  to  learn  poetry  whose  whole  meaning  they  cannot 
fathom.  Into  this  error  man}7  teachers  have  fallen. 

There  can  be  no  more  profitable  study  for  a  teacher  than  to 
visit  one  of  these  numerous  idiot  schools.  He  finds  the  alpha- 
bet of  his  professional  work  there.  As  the  philologist  learns 
of  the  formation  and  growth  of  language  by  examining,  not 
the  perfectly  formed  languages,  but  the  dialects  of  savage 
tribes,  so  with  the  teacher.  In  like  manner  more  insight  into 
the  philosophy  of  teaching  and  of  the  nature  of  the  mind  can 
be  acquired  by  teaching  a  class  of  children  to  read  than  in 
any  other  grade  of  work. 

//.  —  The  Form  of  Education. 

§  23.  The  general  form  of  Education  follows  from  the 
nature  of  mind.  Mind  is  nothing  but  what  it  itself  creates 
out  of  its  own  activity.  It  is,  at  first,  mind  as  undeveloped  or 
unconscious  (in  the  main)  ;  but,  secondly,  it  acquires  the  power 
of  examining  its  own  action,  of  considering  itself  as  an  object 
of  attention,  as  if  it  were  a  quite  foreign  thing  —  i.  e.,  it  reflects 
(in  this  stage  it  is  really  ignorant  that  it  is  studying  its  own  na- 
ture) ;  and,  finally,  it  becomes  conscious  that  this,  which  it  had 
been  examining,  and  of  whose  existence  it  is  conscious,  is  its 


The  Science  of  Education.  19 

own  self:  It  attains  self-consciousness.  It  is  through  this 
estrangement  from  itself,  given  back  to  itself  again  and  re- 
stored to  unity,  but  it  is  no  longer  a  simple,  unconscious  unity. 
In  this  third  state  only  can  it  be  said  to  be  free  —  i.  e.,  to  pos- 
sess itself.  Education  cannot  create  ;  it  can  only  help  to  de- 
velop into  reality  the  previously-existent  possibility  ;  it  can 
only  help  to  bring  forth  to  light  the  hidden  life. 

§  24.  All  culture,  in  whatever  line,  must  pass  through 
these  two  stages  of  estrangement  and  of  reunion  ;  the  re- 
union being  not  of  two  different  things,  but  the  recognition  of 
itself  by  thought,  and  its  acceptance  of  itself  as  itself.  And 
the  more  complete  is  the  estrangement  —  i.  e.,  the  more  per- 
fectly can  the  thought  be  made  to  view  itself  as  a  somewhat 
entirely  foreign  to  itself,  to  look  upon  it  as  a  different  and 
independent  somewhat  —  the  more  complete  and  perfect  will  be 
its  union  with  and  acceptance  of  its  object  as  one  with  itself  when 
the  recognition  does  finally  take  place.  Through  culture  we  are 
led  to  this  conscious  possession  of  our  own  thought.  Plato 
gives  to  the  feeling,  with  which  knowledge  must  necessarily 
begin,  the  name  of  wonder.  But  wonder  is  not  knowledge  ; 
it  is  only  the  first  step  towards  it.  It  is  the  half-terrified 
attention  which  the  mind  fixes  on  an  object,  and  the  half-ter- 
ror would  be  impossible  did  it  not  dimly  forebode  that  it  was 
something  of  its  own  nature  at  which  it  was  looking.  The 
child  delights  in  stories  of  the  far-off,  the  strange,  and  the 
wonderful.  It  is  as  if  they  hoped  to  find  in  these  some  solu- 
tion to  themselves — a  solution  which  they  have,  as  it  were, 
asked  in  vain  of  familiar  scenes  and  objects.  Their  craving 
for  such  is  the  proof  of  how  far  their  nature  transcends  all  its 
known  conditions.  They  are  like  adventurous  explorers  who 
push  out  to  unknown  regions  in  hopes  of  finding  the  freedom 
and  wealth  which  lies  only  within  themselves.  They  want  to 
be  told  about  things  which  they  never  saw,  such  as  terrible 
conflagrations,  banditti  life,  wild  animals,  gray  old  ruins,  Rob- 
inson Crusoes  on  far-off,  happy  islands.  They  are  irresistibly 
attracted  by  whatever  is  highly  colored  and  dazzlingly  lighted. 
The  child  prefers  the  story  of  Sinbad  the  Sailor  to  any  tales 
of  his  own  home  and  nation,  because  mind  has  this  necessity 


20  The  Science  of  Education. 

of  getting,  as  it  were,  outside  of  itself  so  as  to  obtain  a  view 
of  itself.  As  the  child  grows  to  youth  he  is,  from  the  same 
reasons,  desirous  of  traveling. 

§  25.  Work  may  be  defined  as  the  activity  of  the  mind 
in  a  conscious  concentration  on,  and  absorption  in,  some  object, 
with  the  purpose  of  acquiring  or  producing  it.  Play  is  the 
activity  of  the  mind  which  gives  itself  up  to  surrounding  ob- 
jects according  to  its  own  caprice,  without  any  thought  as  to 
results.  The  Educator  gives  out  work  to  the  pupil,  but  he 
leaves  him  to  himself  in  his  play. 

§  26.  It  is  necessary  to  draw  a  sharp  line  between  work 
and  play.  If  the  Educator  has  not  respect  for  work  as  an  ac- 
tivity of  great  weight  and  importance,  he  not  only  spoils  the 
relish  of  the  pupil  for  play,  which  loses  all  its  charm  of  free- 
dom when  not  set  off  by  its  antithesis  of  earnest  labor,  but  he 
undermines  in  the  pupil's  mind  all  respect  for  any  real  exist- 
ence. On  the  other  hand,  he  who  does  not  give  to  the  child 
space,  time,  and  opportunity  for  play  prevents  the  originality 
of  his  pupil  from  free  development  through  the  exercise  of  his 
creative  ingenuity.  Play  sends  the  child  back  to  his  work 
refreshed,  because  in  it  he  loses  himself  without  constraint  and 
according  to  his  own  fancy,  while  in  work  he  is  required  to 
yield  himself  up  in  a  manner  prescribed  for  him  by  another. 

Let  the  teacher  watch  his  pupils  while  at  play  if  he  would 
discover  their  individual  peculiarities,  for  it  is  then  that  they 
unconsciously  betray  their  real  propensities.  This  antithesis 
of  work  and  play  runs  through  the  entire  life,  the  form  only 
of  play  varying  with  years  and  occupations.  To  do  what  we 
please,  as  we  please,  and  when  we  please,  not  for  any  reason, 
but  just  because  we  please,  remains  play  always.  Children  in 
their  sports  like  nothing  better  than  to  counterfeit  what  is  to  be 
the  earnest  work  of  their  after-lives.  The  little  girl  plays  with 
her  dolls,  and  the  boy  plays  he  is  a  soldier  and  goes  to  mimic 
wars. 

It  is,  of  course,  an  error  to  suppose  that  the  play  of  a  child  is 
simply  muscular.  The  lamb  and  the  colt  find  their  full  en- 
joyment in  capering  aimlessly  about  the  field.  But  to  the 
child  play  would  be  incomplete  which  did  not  bring  the  mind 


The  Science  of  Education.  21 

into  action.  Children  derive  little  enjoyment  from  purely 
muscular  exercise.  They  must  at  the  same  time  have  an  ob- 
ject requiring  mental  action  to  attain  it.  A  number  of  chil- 
dren set  simply  to  run  up  and  down  a  field  would  tire  of  the 
exercise  in  five  minutes  ;  but  put  a  ball  amongst  them  and  set 
them  to  a  game  and  they  will  be  amused  by  it  for  hours. 

Exceptional  mental  development  is  always  preceded,  and  is, 
indeed,  produced  by,  an  exceptional  amount  of  exercise  in  the 
form  of  play  on  the  part  of  the  special  faculties  concerned. 
The  peculiar  tendencies  exhibited  in  play  are  due  to  the  large 
development  of  particular  faculties,  and  the  ultimate  giant 
strength  of  a  faculty  is  brought  about  by  play.  The  genius  is 
no  doubt  born,  not  made  ;  but,  although  born,  it  would  dwin- 
dle away  in  infancy  were  it  not  for  the  constant  exercise  taken 
in  play,  which  is  as  necessary  for  development  as  food  for  the 
maintenance  of  life. 

§  27.  Work  should  never  be  treated  as  if  it  were  play,  nor 
play  as  if  it  were  work.  Those  whose  work  is  creative  activity 
of  the  mind  may  find  recreation  in  the  details  of  science  ;  and 
those,  again,  whose  vocation  is  scientific  research  can  find  rec- 
reation in  the  practice  of  art  in  its  different  departments. 
What  is  work  to  one  may  thus  be  play  to  another.  This  does 
not,  however,  contradict  the  first  statement. 

§  28.  It  is  the  province  of  education  so  to  accustom  us  to  dif- 
ferent conditions  or  ways  of  thinking  and  acting  that  they  shall 
no  longer  seem  strange  or  foreign  to  us.  When  these  have 
become,  as  we  say,  "  natural  "  to  us  —  when  we  find  the  ac- 
quired mode  of  thinking  or  acting  just  what  our  inclination 
leads  us  to  adopt  unconsciously,  a  Habit  has  been  formed.  A 
habit  is,  then,  the  identity  of  natural  inclination  with  the  spe- 
cial demands  of  any  particular  doing  or  suffering,  and  it  is 
thus  the  external  condition  of  all  progress.  As  long  as  we  re- 
quire the  conscious  act  of  our  will  to  the  performance  of  a  deed, 
that  deed  is  a  somewhat  foreign  to  ourselves,  and  not  yet  a 
part  of  ourselves.  The  practical  work  of  the  educator  may 
thus  be  said  to  consist  in  leading  the  mind  of  the  pupil  over 
certain  lines  of  thought  till  it  becomes  "natural"  or  sponta- 
neous for  him  to  go  by  that  road.  Much  time  is  wasted  in 


22  T7ie  Science  of  Education. 

schools  where  the  pupil's  mind  is  not  led  aright  at  first,  for 
then  he  has  to  unlearn  habits  of  thought  which  are  already 
formed.  The  work  of  the  teacher  is  to  impress  good  methods 
of  studying  and  thinking  upon  the  minds  of  his  pupils,  rather 
than  to  communicate  knowledge. 

§  29.  It  is,  at  first  sight,  entirely  indifferent  Avhat  a  Habit 
shall  relate  to  —  i.  e.,  the  point  is  to  get  the  pupil  into  the  way 
of  forming  habits,  and  it  is  not  at  first  of  so  much  moment 
what  habit  is  formed  as  that  a  habit  is  formed.  But  we  can- 
not consider  that  there  is  anything  morally  neutral  in  the  ab- 
stract, but  only  in  the  concrete,  or  in  particular  examples.  An 
action  may  be  of  no  moral  significance  to  one  man,  and  under 
certain  circumstances,  while  to  another  man,  or  to  the  same 
man  under  different  circumstances,  it  may  have  quite  a  differ- 
ent significance,  or  may  possess  an  entirely  opposite  character. 
Appeal  must  be  made,  then,  to  the  individual  conscience  of  each 
one  to  decide  what  is  and  what  is  not  permissible  to  that  indi- 
vidual under  the  given  circumstances.  Education  must  make 
it  its  first  aim  to  awaken  in  the  pupil  a  sensitiveness  to  spirit- 
ual and  ethical  distinctions  which  knows  that  nothing  is  in  its 
own  nature  morally  insignifiant  or  indifferent,  but  shall  recog- 
nize, even  in  things  seemingly  small,  a  universal  human  signifi- 
cance. But,  yet,  in  relation  to  the  highest  interests  of  morality 
or  the  well-being  of  society,  the  pupil  must  be  taught  to  subor- 
dinate without  hesitation  all  that  relates  exclusively  to  his  own 
personal  comfort  or  welfare  for  the  well-being  of  his  fellow- 
men,  or  for  moral  rectitude. 

When  we  reflect  upon  habit,  it  at  once  assumes  for  us  the 
character  of  useful  or  injurious.  The  consequences  of  a  habit 
are  not  indifferent. 

Whatever  action  tends  as  a  harmonious  means  to  the  realiza- 
tion of  our  purpose  is  desirable  or  advantageous,  and  whatever 
either  partially  contradicts  or  wholly  destroys  it  is  disad- 
vantageous. Advantage  and  disadvantage  being,  then,  only 
relative  terms,  dependent  upon  the  aim  or  purpose  which  we 
happen  to  have  in  view,  a  habit  which  may  be  advantageous  to 
one  man  under  certain  circumstances  may  be  disadvantageous 
to  another  man,  or  even  to  the  same  man,  under  other  circum- 


TJie  Science  of  Education.  23 

stances.  Education  must,  then,  accustom  the  youth  to  consider 
for  himself  the  expediency  or  inexpediency  of  any  action  in 
relation  to  his  own  vocation  in  life.  He  must  not  form  habits 
which  will  be  inexpedient  with  regard  to  that. 

§  31.  There  is,  however,  an  absolute  distinction  of  habits  as 
morally  good  and  bad.  From  this  absolute  stand-point  we 
must,  after  all,  decide  what  is  for  us  allowable  or  forbidden, 
what  is  expedient  and  what  inexpedient. 

§  32.  As  to  its  form,  habit  may  be  either  passive  or  active. 
By  passive  habit  is  meant  a  habit  of  composure  which  surveys 
undisturbed  whatever  vicissitudes,  either  external  or  internal, 
may  fall  to  our  lot,  and  maintains  itself  superior  to  them  all, 
never  allowing  its  power  of  acting  to  be  paralyzed  by  them.  It 
is  not,  however,  merely  a  stoical  indifference,  nor  is  it  the  com- 
posure which  comes  from  inability  to  receive  impressions  —  a 
sort  of  impassivity.  It  is  that  composure  which  is  the  highest 
result  of  power.  Nor  is  it  a  selfish  love  of  ease  which  inten- 
tionally withdraws  itself  from  annoyances  in  order  to  remain 
undisturbed.  It  is  not  manifested  because  of  a  desire  to  be 
out  of  these  vicissitudes.  It  is,  while  in  them,  to  be  not  of 
them.  It  is  the  composure  which  does  not  fret  itself  over 
what  it  cannot  change.  The  soul  that  has  built  for  itself  this 
stronghold  of  freedom  within  itself  may  vividly  experience 
joy  and  sorrow,  pain  and  pleasure,  and  yet  serenely •  know  that 
it  is  intrenched  in  walls  which  are  inaccessible  to  their  attacks, 
because  it  knows  that  it  is  infinitely  superior  to  all  that  may 
chance  or  change.  What  is  meant  by  active  habit  in  distinction 
from  passive  habit  is  found  in  our  external  activity,  as  skill, 
facility,  readiness  of  information,  etc.  It  might  be  considered 
as  the  equipping  of  our  inner  selves  for  active  contest  with 
the  external  world  ;  while  passive  habit  is  the  fortifying  of  our 
inner  selves  against  the  attack  of  the  external  world.  The 
man  who  possesses  habit  in  both  these  forms  impresses  him- 
self in  many  different  ways  on  the  outer  world,  while  at  the 
same  time,  and  all  the  time,  he  preserves  intact  his  personality 
from  the  constant  assaults  of  the  outer  world.  He  handles 
both  spear  and  shield. 

§  33.  All  education,  in  whatever  line,  must  work  by  forming 


24  The  Science  of  Education. 

habits  physical,  mental,  or  moral.  It  might  be  said  to  consist 
in  a  conversion  of  actions  which  are  at  first  voluntary,  by 
means  of  repetition,  into  instructive  actions  which  are  per- 
formed, as  we  say,  naturally — i.  e.,  without  any  conscious  voli- 
tion. We  teach  a  child  to  walk,  or  he  teaches  himself  to  walk  by 
a  constant  repetition  of  the  action  of  the  will  upon  the  necessary 
muscles  ;  and,  when  the  thinking  brain  hands  over  the  mechan- 
ism to  the  trained  spinal  cord,  the  anxious,  watchful  look  dis- 
appears from  the  face,  and  the  child  talks  or  laughs  as  he  runs  : 
then  that  part  of  his  education  is  completed .  Henceforth  the  at- 
tention that  had  been  necessary  to  manage  the  body  in  walking 
is  freed  for  other  work.  This  is  onlv  an  illustration,  easilv  un- 

*/  */ 

derstood,  of  what  takes  place  in  all  education.  Mental  and 
moral  acts,  thoughts,  and  feelings  in  the  same  way  are,  by 
repetition,  converted  into  habits  and  become  our  nature ; 
and  character,  good  or  bad,  is  only  the  aggregate  of  our  habits. 
When  we  say  a  person  has  no  character,  we  mean  exactly  this  : 
that  he  has  no  fixed  habits.  But,  as  the  great  end  of  human 
life  is  freedom,  he  must  be  above  even  habit.  He  must  not 
be  wholly  a  machine  of  habits,  and  education  must  enable  him 
to  attain  the  power  of  breaking  as  well  as  of  forming  habits,  so 
that  he  may,  when  desirable,  substitute  one  habit  for  another. 
For  habits  may  be  (§  29),  according  to  their  nature,  proper  or 
improper,  advantageous  or  disadvantageous,  good  or  bad  ;  and, 
according  to  their  form,  may  be  (§32)  either  the  acceptance 
of  the  external  by  the  internal  or  the  reaction  of  the  internal 
upon  the  external.  Through  our  freedom  we  must  be  able,  not 
only  to  renounce  any  habit  formed,  but  to  form  a  new  and 
better  one.  Man  should  be  supreme  above  all  habits,  wearing 
them  as  garments  which  the  soul  puts  on  and  off  at  will.  It 
must  so  order  them  all  as  to  secure  for  itself  a  constant  progress 
of  development  into  still  greater  freedom.  In  this  higher 
view  habits  become  thus  to  our  sight  only  necessary  accom- 
paniments of  imperfect  freedom.  Can  we  conceive  of  God, 
who  is  perfect  Freedom,  as  having  any  habits?  We  might  say 
that,  as  a  means  toward  the  ever-more  decided  realization  of  the 
Good,  we  must  form  a  habit  of  voluntarily  making  and  break- 
ing off  habits.  We  must  characterize  as  bad  those  habits  which 


The  Science  of  Education.  25 

relate  only  to  our  personal  convenience  or  enjoyment.  They 
are  often  not  essentially  blameworthy,  but  there  lies  in  them  a 
hidden  danger  that  they  may  allure  us  into  luxury  or  effemi- 
nacy. It  is  a  false  and  mechanical  way  of  looking  at  the 
affair  to  suppose  that  a  habit  which  had  been  formed  by  a 
certain  number  of  .repetitions  can  be  broken  off  by  an  equal 
number  of  refusals.  We  can  never  utterly  renounce  a  habit 
which  we  decide  to  be  undesirable  for  us  except  through  de- 
cision and  firmness. 

§  34.  Education,  then,  must  consider  the  preparation  for 
authorit}7-  and  obedience  (§  17)  ;  for  a  rational  ordering  of  one's 
actions  according  to  universal  principles,  and,  at  the  same  time, 
a  preservation  of  individuality  (§  18);  for  work  and  play 
(§  25)  ;  for  habits  of  spontaneity  or  originality  (§28).  To 
endeavor  by  any  set  rules  to  harmonize  in  the  pupil  these  op- 
posites  will  be  a  vain  endeavor,  and  failure  in  the  solution  of 
the  problem  is  quite  possible  by  reason  of  the  freedom  of  the 
pupil,  of  surrounding  circumstances,  or  of  mistakes  on  the 
part  of  the  teacher,  and  the  possibility  of  this  negative  result 
must,  therefore,  enter  as  an  element  of  calculation  into  the  work 
itself.  All  the  dangers  which  may  in  any  way  threaten  the 
youth  must  be  considered  in  advance,  and  he  must  be  fortified 
against  them.  While  we  should  not  intentionally  expose  the 
youth  to  temptation  in  order  to  prove  his  strength  of  resistance, 
neither  should  we,  on  the  other  hand,  endeavor  to  seclude  him 
from  all  chance  of  dangerous  temptation.  To  do  the  former 
would  be  satanic  ;  while  to  do  the  latter  would  be  ridiculous, 
useless,  and  in  fact  dangerous  in  the  highest  degree,  for  tempta- 
tion comes  more  from  within  than  from  without,  and  any  secret 
inclination  will  in  some  way  seek,  or  even  create,  its  own  op- 
portunity for  gratification.  The  real  safety  from  sin  lies,  not 
in  seclusion  of  one's  self  from  the  world  l —  for  all  the  elements 
of  worldliness  are  innate  in  each  individual  —  but  in  an  occu- 
pying of  the  restless  activity  in  other  ways,  in  learning  and  dis- 
cipline ;  these  being  varied  as  time  goes  on,  according  to  the 
age  and  degree  of  proficiency.  Not  to  crush  out,  but  to  direct, 


9  "When  me  they  fly,  I  am  the  wings."  —  Emerson. 


26  The  Science  of  Education. 

the  child's  activity,  whether  physical  or  mental,  is  the  key  to  all 
real  success  in  education.  The  sentimentalism  which  has,  during 
the  last  few  years,  in  this  country  (the United  States),  tended 
to  diminish  to  so  great  an  extent  the  actual  work  to  be  per- 
formed by  our  boys  and  girls,  has  set  free  a  dangerous  amount 
6f  energy  whose  new  direction  gives  cause  for  grave  alarm. 
To  endeavor  to  prevent  the  youth  from  all  free  and  individual 
relations  with  the  real  world,  implies  a  never-ending  watch 
kept  over  him.  The  consciousness  of  being  thus  "  shadowed  " 
destroys  in  the  youth  all  elasticity  of  spirit,  all  confidence,  and 
all  originality.  A  constant  feeling  of,  as  it  were,  a  detective 
police  at  his  side  obscures  all  sense  of  independent  action,  sys- 
tematically accustoming  him  to  dependence.  Though,  as  the 
tragic-comic  story  of  Peter  Schlemihl  shows,  the  loss  of  a  man's 
own  shadow  may  involve  him  in  a  series  of  fatalities,2  yet  to  be 
"shadowed"  constantly  by  a  companion,  as  in  the  pedagog- 
ical system  of  the  Jesuits,  undermines  all  naturalness.  And, 
if  we  endeavor  to  guard  too  strictly  against  what  is  evil  and 
wrong,  the  pupil  reacts,  bringing  all  his  intelligence  into  the 
service  of  his  craft  and  cunning,  till  the  would-be  educator 
stands  aghast  at  the  discovery  of  such  evil-doing  as  he  had 
supposed  impossible  under  his  strict  supervision.  Within  the 
circle  of  whatever  rules  it  may  be  found  necessary  to  draw 
around  the  young  there  must  always  be  left  space  for  freedom. 
Pupils  should  always  be  led  to  see  that  all  rules  against  which 
they  fret  are  only  of  their  own  creation  ;  and  that  as  grave-stones 
mark  the  place  where  some  one  has  fallen,  so  every  law  is 
only  a  record  of  some  previous  wrong-doing.  The  law  "Thou 
shalt  not  kill  "  was  not  given  till  murder  had  been  committed. 
In  other  words,  the  wrong  deed  preceded  the  law  against  it, 
and  perfect  obedience  is  the  same  as  perfect  freedom.  No  obe- 
dience except  that  which  we  gain  from  the  pupil's  own  convic- 
tions has  real  educational  significance. 

§  35.    If  there  appears  in  the  youth  any  decided  deformity 
opposed  to  the  ideal  which  we  would  create  in  him,  we  should  at 


10  The  story  of  Peter  Schlemihl,  by  Chamisso,  may  be  read  in  the  English  trans- 
lation published  in  "Hedge's  German  Prose  Writers." 


The  Science  of  Education.  27 

once  inquire  into  its  history  and  origin.  The  negative  and 
positive  are  so  closely  related,  and  depend  so  intimately  on 
each  other,  in  our  being  that  what  appears  to  us  to  be  neg- 
ligence, rudeness,  immorality,  foolishness,  or  oddity  may 
arise  from  some  real  necessity  of  the  pupil  which  in  its  process 
of  development  has  only  taken  a  wrong  direction. 

§  36.  If  it  should  appear,  on  such  examination,  that  the 
wrong  action  was  the  result  of  avoidable  ignorance,  of  caprice, 
or  willfulness  on  the  part  of  the  pupil,  this  calls  for  a  simple  pro- 
hibition on  the  part  of  the  teacher,  no  reason  being  assigned. 
His  authority  must  be  sufficient  for  the  pupil  without  any 
reason.  When  the  fault  is  repeated,  and  the  pupil  is  old 
enough  to  understand,  then  only  should  the  grounds  of  the 
prohibition  be  stated  with  it.  This  should,  however,  be  done 
in  few  words,  and  the  educator  must  never  allow  himself  to 
lose,  in  a  doctrinal  lecture,  the  idea  of  discipline.  If  he  do, 
the  pupil  will  soon  forget  that  it  was  his  own  misbehavior 
which  was  the  cause  of  all  the  remarks.  The  statement  of 
the  reason  must  be  honest,  and  must  be  presented  to  the  yputh 
on  the  side  most  easy  for  him  to  appreciate.  False  reasons 
are  not  only  morally  wrong,  but  they  lead  the  mind  astray. 
We  also  commit  a  grave  error  when  we  try  to  unfold  to  the 
youth  all  the  possible  consequences  of  his  wrong  act,  for  those 
possible  consequences  are  too  far  off  to  affect  his  mind.  The 
long  lecture  wearies  him,  especially  if  it  be  in  a  stereotyped 
form  ;  and  with  teachers  who  are  fault-finding,  and  who  like  to 
hear  themselves  talk,  this  is  apt  to  be  the  case.  Still  more 
unfortunate  would  it  be  if  we  really  should  affect  the  lively 
imagination  of  a  sensitive  youth  by  our  description  of  the 
wretchedness  to  which  his  wrong-doing,  if  persisted  in,  might 
lead  him,  for  then  the  conviction  that  he  has  already  taken 
one  step  in  that  direction  may  produce  in  him  a  fear  which  in 
the  future  man  may  become  terrible  depression  and  lead  to 
degradation. 

§   37.  If  to  censure  we  add  the  threat  of  punishment,  we 
have  then  what  in  common  language  is  called  scolding. 

If  threats  are  made,  the  pupil  must  be  made  to  feel  that 
they  will  be  faithfully  executed  according  to  the  word. 


28,  The  Science  of  Education. 

The  threat  of  punishment  is,  however,  to  be  avoided  ;  for  cir- 
cumstances may  arise  which  will  render  its  fulfillment  not  only 
objectionable,  but  wrong,  and  the  teacher  will  then  find  himself 
in  the  position  of  Herod  and  bound  "  for  his  oath's  sake  "  to  a 
course  of  action  which  no  longer  seems  the  best.  Even  the 
laAV  in  affixing  a  penalty  to  definite  crimes  allows  a  certain 
latitude  in  a  maximum  and  minimum  of  awarded  punishment. 

§  38.  It  is  only  after  other  means  of  reformation  have  been 
tried,  and  have  failed,  that  punishment  is  justifiable  for  error, 
transgression,  or  vice.  When  our  simple  prohibition  (§  36), 
the  statement  of  our  reason  for  the  prohibition(  §  36),  and  threat 
of  punishment  (§37)  have  all  failed,  then  punishment  comes 
and  intentionally  inflicts  pain  on  the  youth  in  order  to  force 
him  by  this  last  means  to  a  realization  of  his  wrong-doing.  And 
here  the  punishment  must  not  be  given  for  general  bad  conduct 
or  for  a  perverse  disposition  —  those  being  vague  generalities  — 
but  for  a  special  act  of  wrong-doing  at  that  time.  He  should 
not  be  punished  because  he  is  naturally  bad  or  because  he  is 
generally  naughty,  but  for  this  one  special  and  particular  act 
which  he  has  committed.  Thus  the  punishment  will  act  on  the 
general  disposition,  not  directly,  but  through  this  particular 
act,  as  a  manifestation  of  the  disposition.  Then  it  will  not 
accuse  the  innermost  nature  of  the  culprit.  This  way  of 
punishment  is  not  only  demanded  by  justice,  but  it  is  absolutely 
necessary  in  view  of  the  fact  of  the  sophistry  inherent  in 
human  nature  which  is  always  busy  in  assigning  various 
motives  for  its  actions.  If  the  child  understands,  then,  that  he 
is  punished  for  that  particular  act  which  he  knows  himself  to 
have  committed,  he  cannot  feel  the  bitter  sense  of  injustice 
and  misunderstanding  which  a  punishment  inflicted  for  general 
reasons,  and  which  attributes  to  him  a  depravity  of  motives 
and  intentions,  so  often  engenders. 

§  39.  Punishment  as  an  educational  means  must,  neverthe- 
less, be  always  essentially  corrective,  since  it  seeks  always  to 
bring  the  youth  to  a  comprehension  of  his  wrong-doing  and  to 
a  positive  alteration  in  his  behavior,  and,  hence,  has  for  its  aim 
to  improve  him.  At  the  same  time  it  is  a  sad  testimony  of 
the  insufficiency  of  the  means  which  have  been  previously  tried. 


Tlie  Science  of  Education.  29 

We  should  on  no  account  aim  to  terrify  the  youth  by  physical 
force,  so  that  to  avoid  that  he  will  refrain  from  doing  the 
wrong  or  from  repeating  a  wrong  act  already  done.  This 
would  lead  only  to  terrorism,  and  his  growing  strength  would 
soon  put  him  beyond  its  power  and  leave  him  without  motive 
for  refraining  from  evil.  Punishment  may  have  this  effect  in 
some  degree,  but  it  should,  above  all,  be  madeto  impress  deeply 
upon  his  mind  the  eternal  truth  that  the  evil  deed  is  never 
allowed  in  God's  universe  to  act  unrestrained  and  according  to 
its  own  will,  but  that  the  good  and  true  is  the  only  absolute 
power  in  the  world,  and  that  it  is  never  at  a  loss  to  avenge  any 
contradiction  of  its  will  and  design. 

It  may  be  questioned  whether  the  moral  teaching  in  our 
schools  be  not  too  negative  in  its  measures  ;  whether  it  do 
not  confine  itself  too  much  to  forbidding  the  commission  of  the 
wrong  deed,  and  spend  too  little  force  in  sacuring  the  per- 
formance of  the  right  deed.  Not  a  simple  refraining  from  the 
wrong,  but  an  active  doing  of  the  right  would  be  the  better 
lesson  to  inculcate. 

In  the  laws  of  the  state  the  office  of  punishment  is  first  to 
satisfy  justice,3  and  only  after  this  is  done  can  the  improve- 
ment of  the  criminal  be  considered.  If  government  should 
proceed  on  the  same  basis  as  the  educator,  it  would  make  a 
grave  mistake,  for  it  has  to  deal,  not  with  children,  but  with 
adults,  to  whom  it  concedes  the  dignity  of  full  responsibility 
for  all  their  acts.  It  has  not  to  consider  the  reasons,  either 
psychological  or 'ethical,  which  prompted  the  deed.  The 
actual  deed  is  what  it  has  first  of  all  to  deal  with,  and  only 
after  that  is  considered  and  settled  can  it  take  into  view  any 


11  That  is,  punishment  is  retributive  and  not  corrective.  Justice  requires  that 
each  man  shall  have  the  fruits  of  his  own  deeds;  in  this  it  assumes  that  each 
and  every  man  is  free  and  self-determined.  It  proposes  to  treat  each  man  as  free, 
and  as  the  rightful  owner  of  his  deed  and  its  consequences.  If  he  does  a  deed 
which  is  destructive  to  human  rights,  it  shall  destroy  his  rights  and  deprive  him  of 
property,  personal  freedom,  or  even  of  life.  But  corrective  punishment  assumes 
immaturity  of  development  and  consequent  lack  of  freedom.  It  belongs  to  the 
period  of  nurture,  and  not  to  the  period  of  maturity.  The  tendency  in  our 
schools  is,  however,  to  displace  the  forms  of  mere  corrective  punishment  (cor- 
poral chastisement),  and  to  substitute  for  them  forms  founded  on  retribution — 
e.  g.j  deprivation  of  privileges.  See  sees.  42  and  43. 


30  The  Science  of  Education. 

mitigating  circumstances  connected  therewith,  or  any  pecul- 
iarity of  the  individual.  The  educator,  on  the  other  hand, 
has  to  deal  with  those  who  are  immature  and  only  growing 
toward  responsibility.  As  long  as  they  are  under  the  care  of 
a  teacher,  he  is  at  any  rate  partially  accountable  for  what  they 
do.  We  must  never  confound  the  nature  of  punishment  in  the 
State  with  that  of  punishment  as  an  educational  means. 

§  40.  As  to  punishment,  as  with  all  other  work  in  education, 
it  can  never  be  abstractly  determined  beforehand,  but  it  must  be 
regulated  with  a  view  to  the  individual  pupil  and  his  peculiar 
circumstances.  What  it  shall  be,  and  how  and  when  adminis- 
tered, are  problems  which  call  for  great  ingenuity  and  tact  on 
the  part  of  the  educator.  It  must  never  be  forgotten  that 
punishments  vary  in  intensity  at  the  will  of  the  educator.  He 
fixes  the  standard  by  which  they  are  measured  in  the  child's 
mind.  Whipping  is  actual  physical  pain,  and  an  evil  in  itself 
to  the  child.  But  there  are  many  other  punishments  which 
involve  no  physical  pain,  and  the  intensity  of  which,  as  felt  by 
the  child,  varies  according  to  an  artificial  standard  in  dif- 
ferent schools.  "To  sit  under  the  clock"  was  a  great  pun- 
ishment in  one  of  our  public  schools  —  not  that  the  seat  was 
not  perfectly  comfortable,  but  that  one  was  never  sent  there 
to  sit  unless  for  some  grave  misdemeanor.  The  teacher  has 
the  matter  in  his  own  hands,  and  it  is  well  to  remember  this 
and  to  grade  his  punishments  with  much  caution,  so  as  to 
make  all  pass  for  their  full  value.  In  some  schools  even  sus- 
pension is  so  common  that  it  does  not  seem  to  the  pupil  a 
very  terrible  thing.  "  Familiarity  breeds  contempt,"  and  fre- 
quency implies  familiarity.  A  punishment  seldom  resorted  to 
will  always  seem  to  the  pupil  to  be  severe.  As  we  weaken, 
and  in  fact  bankrupt,  language  by  an  inordinate  use  of  super- 
latives, so,  also,  do  we  weaken  any  punishment  by  its  fre- 
quent repetition.  Economy  of  resources  should  be  always 
practiced. 

§  41.  In  general,  we  might  say  that,  for  very  young  children, 
corporal  punishment  is  most  appropriate  ;  for  boys  and  girls, 
isolation  ;  and  for  older  youth,  something  which  appeals  to  the 
sense  of  honor. 


The  Science  of  Education.  31 

§42.  (1)  Corporal  punishment  implies  physical  pain.  Gen- 
erally it  consists  of  a  whipping,  and  this  is  perfectly  justifiable 
in  case  of  persistent  defiance  of  authority,  of  obstinate  care- 
lessness, or  of  malicious  evil-doing,  so  long  or  so  often  as  the 
higher  perceptions  of  the  offender  are  closed  against  appeal. 
But  it  must  not  be  administered  too  often,  or  with  undue  se- 
verity. To  resort  to  deprivation  of  food  is  cruel.  But,  while 
we  condemn  the  false  view  of  seeing  in  the  rod  the  only  pana- 
cea for  all  embarrassing  questions  of  discipline  on  the  teach- 
er's part,  we  can  have  no  sympathy  for  the  sentimentality 
which  assumes  that  the  dignity  of  humanity  is  affected  by 
a  blow  given  to  a  child.  It  is  wrong  thus  to  confound  self- 
conscious  humanity  with  child-humanity,  for  to  the  average 
child  himself  a  blow  is  the  most  natural  form  of  retribution, 
and  that  in  which  all  other  efforts  at  influence  at  last  end . 
The  fully  grown  man  ought,  certainly,  not  to  be  flogged,  for 
this  kind  of  punishment  places  him  on  a  level  with  the  child  ; 
or,  where  it  is  barbarously  inflicted,  reduces  him  to  the  level  of 
the  brute,  and  thus  absolutely  does  degrade  him.  In  English 
schools  the  rod  is  said  to  be  often  used  ;  if  a  pupil  of  the  first 
class,  who  is  never  flogged,  is  put  back  into  the  second,  he  be- 
comes again  subject  to  flogging.  But,  even  if  this  be  necessary 
in  the  schools,  it  certainly  has  no  proper  place  in  the  army 
and  navy. 

§  43.  (2)  To  punish  a  pupil  by  isolation  is  to  remove  him 
temporarily  from  the  society  of  his  fellows.  The  boy  or  girl 
thus  cut  off  from  companionship,  and  forced  to  think  only  of 
himself,  begins  to  understand  how  helpless  he  is  in  such  a 
position.  Time  passes  wearily,  and  he  is  soon  eager  to  re- 
turn to  the  companionship  of  parents,  brothers  and  sisters, 
teachers  and  fellow-students. 

But  to  leave  a  child  entirely  by  himself  without  any  super- 
vision, and  perhaps  in  a  dark  room,  is  as  wrong  as  to  leave  two 
or  three  together  without  supervision.  It  often  happens  when 
they  are  kept  after  school  by  themselves  that  they  give  the 
freest  rein  to  their  childish  wantonness,  and  commit  the  wildest 
pranks. 

§  44.   (3)    Shutting  children  up  in  this  way  does  not  touch 


32  The  Science  of  Education. 

their  sense  of  honor,  and  the  punishment  is  soon  forgotten, 
because  it  relates  only  to  certain  particular  phases  of  their 
behavior.  But  it  is  quite  different  when  the  pupil  is  isolated 
from  his  fellows  on  the  ground  that  by  his  conduct  he  has 
violated  the  very  principles  which  make  civilized  society 
possible,  and  is,  therefore,  no  longer  a  proper  member  of  it. 
This  is  a  punishment  which  touches  his  sense  of  honor,  for 
honor  is  the  recognition  of  the  individual  by  others  as  their 
equal,  and  by  his  error,  or  by  his  crime,  he  had  forfeited  his 
right  to  be  their  equal,  their  peer,  and  has  thus  severed 
himself  from  them. 

The  separation  from  them  is  thus  only  the  external  form  of 
the  real  separation  which  he  himself  has  brought  to  pass  with- 
in his  soul,  and  which  his  wrong-doing  has  only  made  clearly 
visible.  This  kind  of  punishment,  thus  touching  the  whole 
character  of  the  youth  and  not  easily  forgotten,  should  be 
administered  with  the  greatest  caution  lest  a  permanent  loss  of 
self-respect  follow.  When  we  think  our  wrong-doing  to  be 
eternal  in  its  effects,  we  lose  all  power  of  effort  for  our  owii 
improvement. 

This  sense  of  honor  cannot  be  developed  so  well  in  family 
life,  because  in  the  family  the  ties  of  blood  make  all  in  a  cer- 
tain sense  equal,  no  matter  what  may  be  their  conduct.  He 
who  has  by  wrong-doing  severed  himself  from  society  is  still  a 
member  of  the  family,  and  within  its  sacred  circle  is  still  be- 
loved, though  it  may  be  with  bitter  tears.  No  matter  how 
wrong  he  may  have  been,  he  still  can  find  there  the  deepest 
sympathy,  for  he  is  still  father,  brother,  etc.  It  is  in  the  con- 
tact of  one  family  with  another  that  the  feeling  of  honor  is 
first  developed,  and  still  more  in  the  contact  of  the  individual 
with  an  institution  which  is  not  bound  to  him  by  any  natural 
ties,  but  is  an  organism  entirely  external  to  him.  Thus,  to  the 
child,  the  school  and  the  school-classes  offer  a  means  of  devel- 
opment which  can  never  be  found  in  the  family. 

This  fact  is  often  overlooked  by  those  who  have  the  charge 
of  the  education  of  children.  No  home  education,  no  private 
tutorship,  can  take  the  place  of  the  school  as  an  educational 
influence.  For  the  first  time  in  his  life  the  child,  on  being 


The  Science  of  Education.  33 

sent  to  school,  finds  himself  in  a  community  where  he  is  re- 
sponsible for  his  own  deeds,  and  where  he  has  no  one  to  shield 
him.  The  rights  of  others  for  whom  he  has  no  special  affec- 
tion are  to  be  respected  by  him,  and  his  own  are  to  be  de- 
fended. The  knowledge  gained  at  the  school  is  by  no  means 
the  most  valuable  acquisition  there  obtained.  It  must  never 
be  forgotten  by  the  teacher  that  the  school  is  an  institution  on 
an  entirely  different  basis  from  the  family,  and  that  personal 
attachment  is  not  the  principle  on  which  its  rule  can  be  rightly 
based. 

§  45.  This  gradation  of  punishment  from  physical  pain,  up 
through  occasional  isolation,  to  the  touching  of  the  innermost 
sense  of  honor  is  very  carefully  to  be  considered,  both  with 
regard  to  the  different  ages  at  which  they  are  severally  appro- 
priate and  to  the  different  discipline  which  they  necessarily 
produce.  Every  punishment  must,  however,  be  always  looked 
at  as  a  means  to  some  end,  and  is  thus  transitory  in  its  nature. 
The  pupil  should  always  be  conscious  that  it  is  painful  to  the 
teacher  to  punish  him.  Nothing  can  be  more  effectual  as  a 
means  of  cure  for  the  wrong-doer  than  to  perceive  in  the  man- 
ner and  tone  of  the  voice,  in  the  very  delay  with  which  the 
necessary  punishment  is  administered,  that  he  who  punishes 
also  suffers  in  order  that  the  wrong-doer  may  be  cured  of  his 
fault.  The  principle  of  vicarious  suffering  lies  at  the  root  of 
all  spiritual  healing. 

///.  — The  Limits  of  Education. 

§  46.  As  far  as  the  external  form  of  education  is  concerned, 
its  limit  is  reached  in  the  instrumentality  of  punishment  in 
which  we  seek  to  turn  the  activity  which  has  been  employed  in 
a  wrong  direction  into  its  proper  channel,  to  make  the  deed 
positive  instead  of  negative,  to  substitute  for  the  destructive 
deed  one  which  shall  be  in  harmony  with  the  constructive 
forces  of  society.  But  education  implies  its  real  limits 
in  its  definition,  which  is  to  build  up  the  individual  into 
theoretical  and  practical  Reason.  When  this  work  goes  prop- 
erly on,  the  authority  of  the  educator,  as  authority,  necessarily 
3 


34  The  Science  of  Education. 

loses,  every  day,  some  of  its  force,  as  the  guiding  principles 
come  to  form  a  part  of  the  pupil's  own  character,  instead  of 
being  super-imposed  on  him  from  without  through  the  media- 
tion of  the  educator.  What  was  authority  becomes  now  ad- 
vice and  example  ;  unreasoning  and  implicit  obedience  passes 
into  gratitude  and  affection.  The  pupil  wears  off  the  rough 
edges  of  his  crude  individuality,  which  is  transfigured,  so  to 
speak,  into  the  universality  and. necessity  of  Reason,  but  with- 
out losing  his  identity  in  the  process.  Work  becomes  enjoy- 
ment, and  Play  is  found  only  in  a  change  of  activity.  The 
youth  takes  possession  of  himself,  and  may  now  be  left  to  him- 
self. There  are  two  widely  differing  views  with  regard  to  the 
limits  of  education  ;  one  lays  great  stress  on  the  powerlessness 
of  the  pupil  and  the  great  power  ot  the  teacher,  and  asserts 
that  the  teacher  must  create  something  out  of  the  pupil. 

This  view  is  often  seen  to  have  undesirable  results,  where 
large  numbers  are  to  be  educated  together.  It  assumes  that 
each  pupil  is  only  *'  a  sample  of  the  lot  "  on  whom  the  teacher 
is  to  affix  his  stamp,  as  if  they  were  different  pieces  of  goods 
from  some  factory.  Thus  individuality  is  destroyed,  and  all 
reduced  to  one  level,  as  in  cloisters,  barracks,  and  orphan  asy- 
lums, where  only  one  individual  seems  to  exist.  Sometimes  it 
takes  the  form  of  a  theory  which  holds  that  one  can  at  will 
flog  anything  into  or  out  of  a  pupil.  This  may  be  called  a 
superstitious  belief  in  the  power  of  education.  The  opposite 
extreme  may  be  found  in  that  system  which  advocates  a  "  se- 
vere letting  alone,"  asserting  that  individuality  is  unconquer- 
able, and  that  often  the  most  careful  and  circumspect  education 
fails  of  reaching  its  aim  because  the  inherent  nature  of  the 
youth  has  fought  against  it  with  such  force  as  to  render  abort- 
ive all  opposing  efforts.  This  idea  of  Pedagogy  produces  a 
sort  of  indifference  about  means  and  ends  which  would  leave 
each  individuality  to  grow  as  its  own  instinct  and  the  chance 
influences  of  the  world  might  direct.  The  latter  view  would, 
of  course,  preclude  the  possibility  of  any  science  of  education, 
and  make  the  youth  only  the  sport  of  blind  fate.  The  com- 
parative power  of  inherited  tendencies  and  of  educational  ap- 
pliances is,  however,  one  which  every  educator  should  carefully 


The  Science  of  Education.  35 

study.  Much  careless  generalization  has  been  made  on  this 
topic,  and  opinion  is  too  often  based  upon  some  one  instance 
where  accurate  observation  of  methods  and  influences  have 
been  wanting. 

§  47.  Education  has  necessarily  a  definite  subjective  limit 
in  the  individuality  of  the  youth,  for  it  can  develop  in  him  only 
that  which  exists  in  him  as  a  possibility.  It  can  lead  and 
assist,  but  it  has  no  power  to. create.  What  nature  has  denied 
to  a  man  education  cannot  give  him,  any  more  than  it  can  on 
the  other  hand  annihilate  his  original  gifts,  though  it  may 
suppress,  distort,  and  measurably  destroy  them.  And  yet  it  is 
impossible  to  decide  what  is  the  real  essence  of  a  man's  indi- 
viduality until  he  has  left  behind  him  the  years  of  growth, 
because  it  is  not  till  then  that  he  fully  attains  conscious 
possession  of  himself.  Moreover,  at  this  critical  time  many 
traits  which  were  supposed  to  be  characteristic  may  prove 
themselves  not  to  be  so  by  disappearing,  while  long-slumbering 
and  unsuspected  talents  may  crop  out.  Whatever  has  been 
forced  upon  a  child,  though  not  in  harmony  with  his  individu- 
ality, whatever  has  been  driven  into  him  without  having  been 
actively  accepted  by  him,  or  having  had  a  definite  relation  to 
his  culture  —  will  remain  perhaps,  but  only  as  an  external 
foreign  ornament,  only  as  a  parasitic  growth  which  weakens 
the  force  of  his  real  nature.  But  we  must  distinguish  from 
these  little  affectations  which  arise  from  a  misconception  of 
the  limits  of  individuality  that  effort  of  Imitation  which 
children  and  young  people  often  exhibit  in  trying  to  copy  in 
their  own  actions  those  peculiarities  which  they  observe  and 
admire  in  perfectly-developed  persons  with  whom  they  may 
come  in  contact.  They  see  a  reality  which  corresponds  to  their 
own  possibility,  and  the  presentiment  of  a  like  or  a  similar 
attainment  stirs  them  to  imitation,  although  this  external 
imitation  may  be  sometimes  disagreeable  or  ridiculous  to  the 
lookers-on.  We  ought  not  to  censure  it  too  severely,  remem- 
bering that  it  springs  from  a  positive  striving  towards  true 
culture,  and  needs  only  to  be  properly  directed,  and  never  to 
be  roughly  put  down. 

§  48.    The  objective  limit  of  education  consists  in  the  means 


36  The  /Science  of  Education. 

which  can  be  applied  for  it.  That  the  capacity  for  culture 
should  exist  is  the  first  condition  of  success,  but  it  is  none  the 
less  necessary  that  it  be  cultivated.  But  how  much  cultivation 
shall  be  given  to  it  must  depend  in  very  great  degree  on  the 
means  which  are  practicable,  and  this  will  undoubtedly  again 
depend  on  the  worldly  possessions  and  character  of  the  family 
to  which  the  pupil  belongs.  If  he  comes  of  a  cultivated  and 
refined  family,  he  will  have  a  great  advantage  at  the  start  over 
his  less  favored  comrades  ;  and,  with  regard  to  many  of  the  arts 
and  sciences,  this  limitation  of  education  is  of  great  significance. 
But  the  means  alone  will  not  answer.  Without  natural  capac- 
ity, all  the  educational  apparatus  possible  is  of  no  avail.  On 
the  other  hand,  real  talent  often  accomplishes  incredible  feats 
with  very  limited  means  ;  and,  if  the  way  is  only  once  open, 
makes  of  itself  a  center  of  attraction  which  draws  to  itself  as 
with  magnetic  power  the  necessary  means.  Moral  culture  is, 
however,  from  its  very  nature,  raised  above  such  dependence. 

If  we  fix  our  thought  on  the  subjective  limit  —  that  of  indi- 
viduality (§  47) — we  detect  the  ground  for  that  indifference 
which  lays  little  stress  on  education  (§  46,  end).  If,  on  the 
other  hand,  we  concentrate  our  attention  on  the  means  of  cul- 
ture, we  shall  perceive  the  reason  of  the  other  extreme  spoken 
of — of  that  pedagogical  despotism  (§  46)  which  fancies  that 
it  is  able  to  prescribe  and  enforce  at  will  upon  the  pupil  any 
culture  whatever,  without  regard  to  his  special  characteristics. 

§  49.  Education  comes  to  its  absolute  limit  when  the  pupil 
has  apprehended  the  problem  which  he  is  to  solve,  has  com- 
prehended the  means  which  are  at  his  disposal,  and  has  acquired 
the  necessary  skill  in  using  them.  The  true  educator  seeks  to 
render  himself  unnecessary  by  the  complete  emancipation  of 
the  youth.  He  works  always  towards  the  independence  of  the 
pupil,  and  always  with  the  design  of  withdrawing  so  soon  as 
he  shall  have  reached  this  stand-point,  and  of  leaving  him  to 
the  full  responsibility  for  his  own  deeds.  To  endeavor  to  hold 
him  in  the  position  of  a  pupil  after  this  time  has  been  reached 
would  be  to  contradict  the  very  essence  of  education,  which 
must  find  its  result  in  the  independent  maturity  of  the  youth. 
The  inequality  which  formerly  existed  between  pupil  and 


The  Science  of  Education.  37 

teacher  is  now  removed,  and  nothing  becomes  more  oppressive 
to  the  former  than  any  endeavor  to  force  upon  him  the  au- 
thority from  which,  in  reality,  his  own  efforts  have  freed  him. 
But  the  undue  hastening  of  this  emancipation  is  as  bad  an 
error  as  an  effort  after  delay.  The  question  as  to  whether  a 
person  is  really  ready  for  independent  action  —  as  to  whether 
his  education  is  finished  — may  be  settled  in  much  the  same 
way  in  education  as  in  politics.  When  any  people  has  pro- 
gressed so  far  as  to  put  the  question  whether  they  are  ready 
for  freedom,  it  ceases  to  be  a  question  ;  for,  without  the  inner 
consciousness  of  freedom  itself,  the  question  would  never  have 
occurred  to  them. 

§  50.  But,  although  the  pupil  may  rightly  now  be  freed  from 
the  hands  of  instructors,  and  no  longer  obtain  his  culture 
through  them,  it  is  by  no  means  to  be  understood  that  he  is 
not  to  go  on  with  the  work  himself.  He  is  now  to  educate 
himself.  Each  must  plan  out  for  himself  the  ideal  toward  which 
he  must  daily  strive.  In  this  process  of  self-transformation  a 
friend  may  aid  by  advice  and  example,  but  he  cannot  educate, 
for  the  act  of  educating  necessarily  implies  inequality  between 
teacher  and  pupil.  The  human  necessity  for  companionship 
gives  rise  to  societies  of  different  kinds,  in  which  we  may,  per- 
haps, say  that  there  is  some  approach  to  educating  theiv  mem- 
bers, the  necessary  inequality  being  supplied  by  various  grades 
and  orders.  They  presuppose  education  in  the  usual  sense  of 
the  word,  but  they  wish  to  bring  about  an  education  in  a  higher 
sense,  and,  therefore,  they  veil  the  last  form  of  their  ideal  in 
mystery  and  secrecy. 

By  the  term  Philister  the  Germans  indicate  the  man  of  a 
civilized  state  who  lives  on,  contented  with  himself  and  devoid 
of  any  impulse  towards  further  self-culture.  To  one  who  is 
always  aspiring  after  an  Ideal,  such  a  one  cannot  but  be  repul- 
sive. But  how  many  are  they  who  do  not,  sooner  or  later,  in 
mature  life,  crystallize,  as  it  were,  so  that  any  active  life,  any 
new  progress,  is  to  them  impossible? 


ANALYSIS  AND  COMMENTARY. 

§  1.  Pedagogics  is  not  a  complete,  independent  science  by  itself. 
It  borrows  the  results  of  other  sciences  [e.  g.,  it  presupposes  the 
science  of  Rights,  treating  of  the  institutions  of  the  family  and  civil 
society,  as  well  as  of  the  State ;  it  presupposes  the  science  of  anthro- 
pology, in  which  is  treated  the  relations  of  the  human  mind  to  nature. 
Nature  conditions  the  development  of  the  individual  human  being. 
But  the  history  of  the  individual  and  the  history  of  the  race  presents 
a  continual  emancipation  from  nature,  and  a  continual  growth  into 
freedom,  i.  e.,  into  ability  to  know  himself  and  to  realize  himself  in 
the  world  by  making  the  matter  and  forces  of  the  world  his  instruments 
and  tools.  Anthropology  shows  us  how  man  as  a  natural  being  — 
i.  e.,  as  having  a  body —  is  limited.  There  is  climate,  involving  heat 
and  cold  and  moisture,  the  seasons  of  the  year,  etc. ;  there  is  organic 
growth,  involving  birth,  growth,  reproduction,  and  decay;  there  is 
race,  involving  the  limitations  of  heredity  ;  there  is  the  telluric  life 
of  the  planet  and  the  circulation  of  the  forces  of  the  solar  sys- 
tem, whence  arise  the  processes  of  sleeping,  waking,  dreaming,  and 
kindred  phenomena;  there  is  the  emotional  nature  of  man,  involving 
his  feelings,  passions,  instincts,  and  desires ;  then  there  are  the  five 
senses,  and  their  conditions.  Then,  there  is  the  science  of  phenom- 
enology, treating  of  the  steps  by  which  mind  rises  from  the  stage  of 
mere  feeling  and  sense-perception  to  that  of  self-consciousness,  i.  e., 
to  a  recognition  of  mind  as  true  substance,  and  of  matter  as  mere 
phenomenon  created  by  Mind  (God).  Then,  there  is  psychol- 
ogy, including  the  treatment  of  the  stages  of  activity  of  mind,  as 
so-called  "faculties"  of  the  mind,  e.  g.,  attention,  sense-perception, 
imagination, conception, understanding,  judgment,  reason,  and  the  like. 
Psychology  is  generally  made  (by  English  writers)  to  include,  also, 
what  is  here  called  anthropology  and  phenomenology.  After  psychol- 
ogy, there  is  the  science  of  ethics,  or  of  morals  and  customs  ;  then,  the 
Science  of  Rights,  already  mentioned  ;  then,  Theology,  or  the  Science 
of  Religion,  and,  after  all  these,  there  is  Philosophy,  or  the  Science  of 
Science.  Now,  it  is  clear  that  the  Science  of  Education  treats  of 
the  process  of  development,  by  and  through  which  man,  as  a  merely 


The  Science  of  Education.  39 

natural  being,  becomes  spirit,  or  self-conscious  mind ;  hence,  it 
presupposes  all  the  sciences  named,  and  will  be  defective  if  it  ignores 
nature,  or  inind,  or  any  stage  or  process  of  either,  especially  An- 
thropology, Phenomenology,  Psychology,  Ethics,  Rights,  ^Esthetics, 
or  Science  of  Art  and  Literature,  Religion,  or  Philosophy]. 

§  2.  The  scope  of  pedagogics  being  so  broad,  and  its  presuppositions 
so  vast,  its  limits  are  not  well  defined,  and  its  treatises  are  very  apt 
to  lack  logical  sequence  and  conclusion ;  and,  indeed,  frequently  to 
be  mere  collections  of  unjustified  and  unexplained  assumptions, 
dogmatically  set  forth.  Hence  the  low  repute  of  pedagogical  litera- 
ture as  a  whole. 

§  3.  Moreover,  education  furnishes  a  special  vocation,  that  of 
teaching.  (All  vocations  are  specializing  —  being  cut  off,  as  it  were, 
from  the  total  life  of  man.  The  "division  of  labor"  requires  that 
each  individual  shall  concentrate  his  endeavors  and  be  a  part  of  the 
whole). 

§  4.  Pedagogics,  as  a  special  science,  belongs  to  the  collection  of 
sciences  (already  described,  in  commenting  on  §  1)  included  under 
the  philosophy  of  Spirit  or  Mind,  and  more  particularly  to  that  part 
of  it  which  relates  to  the  will  (ethics  and  science  of  rights,  rather 
than  to  the  part  relating  to  the  intellect  and  feeling,  as  anthropology, 
phenomenology,  psychology,  aesthetics,  and  religion.  "Theoretical" 
relates  to  the  intellect,  "practical"  relates  to  the  will,  in  this  phil- 
osophy). The  province  of  practical  philosophy  is  the  investigation 
of  the  nature  of  freedom,  and  the  process  of  securing  it  by  self- 
emancipation  from  nature.  Pedagogics  involves  the  conscious  exer- 
tion of  influence  on  the  part  of  the  will  of  the  teacher  upon  the  will 
of  the  pupil,  with  a  purpose  in  view  —  that  of  inducing  the  pupil  to 
form  certain  prescribed  habits,  and  adopt  prescribed  views  and  in- 
clinations. The  entire  science  of  mind  (as  above  shown),  is  pre- 
supposed by  the  science  of  education,  and  must  be  kept  constantly 
in  view  as  a  guiding  light.  The  institution  of  the  family  (treated  in 
practical  philosophy)  is  the  starting-point  of  education,  and  without 
this  institution  properly  realized,  education  would  find  no  solid 
foundation.  The  right  to  be  educated  on  the  part  of  children,  and 
the  duty  to  educate  on  the  part  of  parents,  are  reciprocal ;  and  there 
is  no  family  life  so  poor  and  rudimentary  that  it  does  not  furnish  the 
most  important  elements  of  education  —  no  matter  what  the  subse- 
quent influence  of  the  school,  the  vocation,  and  the  state. 

§  5.  Pedagogics  as  science,  distinguished  from  the  same  as  an  art: 
the  former  containing  the  abstract  general  treatment,  and  the  latter 


40  The  Science  of  Education. 

taking  into  consideration  all  the  conditions  of  concrete  individuality, 
e.  gr.,  the  peculiarities  of  the  teacher  and  the  pupil,  and  all  the  local 
circumstances,  and  the  power  of  adaptation  known  as  "tact." 

§  6.  The  special  conditions  and  peculiarities,  considered  in  educa- 
tion as  an- art,  may  be  formulated  and  reduced  to  system,  but  they 
should  not  be  introduced  as  a  part  of  the  science  of  education. 

§  7.  Pedagogics  has  three  parts :  first,  it  considers  the  idea  and 
nature  of  education,  and  arrives  at  its  true  definition  ;  second,  it  pre- 
sents and  describes  the  special  provinces  into  which  the  entire  field 
of  education  is  divided  ;  third,  it  considers  the  historical  evolution  of 
education  by  the  human  race,  and  the  individual  systems  of  educa- 
tion that  have  arisen,  flourished,  and  decayed,  and  their  special  func- 
tions in  the  life  of  man. 

§  8.  The  scope  of  the  first  part  is  easy  to  define.  The  history  of 
pedagogics,  of  course,  contains  all  the  ideas  or  definitions  of  the 
nature  of  education  ;  but  it  must  not  for  that  reason  be  substituted 
for  the  scientific  investigation  of  the  nature  of  education,  which  alone 
should  constitute  this  first  part  (and  the  history  of  education  be 
reserved  for  the  third  part). 

§  9.  The  second  part  includes  a  discussion  of  the  threefold  nature 
of  man  as  body,  intellect,  and  will.  The  difficulty  in  this  part  of  the 
science  is  very  great,  because  of  its  dependence  upon  other  sciences 
(e.  gr.,  upon  physiology,  anthropology,  etc.),  and  because  of  the 
temptation  to  go  into  details  (e.  <?.,  in  the  practical  department,  to 
consider  the  endless  varieties  of  schools  for  arts  and  trades). 

§  10.  The  third  part  contains  the  exposition  of  the  various 
national  standpoints  furnished  (in  the  history  of  the  world)  for  the 
bases  of  particular  systems  of  education.  In  each  of  these  systems 
will  be  found  the  general  idea  underlying  all  education,  but  it  will  be 
found  existing  under  special  modifications,  which  have  arisen  through 
its  application  to  the  physical,  intellectual,  and  ethical  conditions  of 
the  people.  But  we  can  deduce  the  essential  features  of  the  differ- 
ent systems  that  may  appear  in  history,  for  there  are  only  a  limited 
number  of  systems  possible.  Each  lower  form  finds  itself  comple- 
mented in  some  higher  form,  and  its  function  and  purpose  then  become 
manifest.  The  systems  of  "national"  education  («'.  e.,  Asiatic  sys- 
tems, in  which  the  individuality  of  each  person  is  swallowed  up  in  the 
substantiality  of  the  national  idea  —  just  as  the  individual  waves  get 
lost  in  the  ocean  on  whose  surface  they  arise)  find  their  complete  ex- 
planation in  the  systems  of  education  that  arise  in  Christianity  (the 
preservation  of  human  life  being  the  object  of  the  nation,  it  follows 


The  Science  of  Education.  41 

that  when  realized  abstractly  or  exclusively,  it  absorbs  and  annuls  the 
mental  independence  of  its  subjects,  and  thus  contradicts  itself  by 
destroying  the  essence  of  what  it  undertakes  to  preserve,  i.  e.,  life 
(soul,  mind)  ;  but  within  Christianity  the  principle  of  the  state  is 
found  so  modified  that  it  is  consistent  with  the  infinite,  untram- 
melled development  of  the  individual,  intellectually  and  morally,  and 
thus  not  only  life  is  saved,  but  spiritual,  free  life  is  attainable  for 
each  and  for  all). 

§  11.  The  history  of  pedagogy  ends  with  the  present  system  as 
the  latest  one.  As  science  sees  the- future  ideally  contained  in  the 
present,  it  is  bound  to  comprehend  the  latest  system  as  a  realization 
(though  imperfect)  of  the  ideal  system  of  education.  Hence,  the 
system,  as  scientifically  treated  in  the  first  part  of  our  work,  is  the 
system  with  which  the  third  part  of  our  work  ends. 

§  12.  The  nature  of  education,  its  form,  its  limits,  are  now  to  be 
investigated.  (§§  13-50.) 

§  13.  The  nature  of  education  determined  by  the  nature  of  Mind 
or  Spirit,  whose  activity  is  always  devoted  to  realizing  for  itself  what 
it  is  potentially  —  to  becoming  conscious  of  its  possibilities,  and  to 
getting  them  under  the  control  of  its  will.  Mind  is  potentially  free. 
Education  is  the  means  by  which  man  seeks  to  realize  in  man  his 
possibilities  (to  develop  the  possibilities  of  the  race  in  each  indi- 
vidual). Hence,  education  has  freedom  for  its  object. 

§  14.  Man  is  the  only  being  capable  of  education,  in  the  sense 
above  defined,  because  the  only  conscious  being.  He  must  know 
himself  ideally,  and  then  realize  his  ideal  self,  in  order  to  become 
actually  free.  The  animals  not  the  plants  ma}'  be  trained,  or  culti- 
vated, but,  as  devoid  of  self-consciousness  (even  the  highest  animals 
not  getting  above  impressions,  not  reaching  ideas,  not  seizing  gen- 
eral or  abstract  thoughts),  they  are  not  realized  for  themselves,  but 
only  for  us.  (That  is,  they  do  not  know  their  ideal  as  we  do. ) 

§  15.  Education,  taken  in  its  widest  compass,  is  the  education  of 
the  human  race  by  Divine  Providence. 

§  16.  In  a  narrower  sense,  education  is  applied  to  the  shaping  of 
the  individual,  so  that  his  caprice  and  arbitrariness  shall  give  place  to 
rational  habits  and  views,  in  harmony  with  nature  and  ethical  cus- 
toms. He  must  not  abuse  nature,  nor  slight  the  ethical  code  of  his 
people,  nor  despise  the  gifts  of  Providence  (whether  for  weal  or 
woe),  unless  he  is  willing  to  be  crushed  in  the  collision  with  these 
more  substantial  elements. 

§  17.    In  the  narrowest,  but  most  usual  application   of  the  term, 


42  The  Science  of  Education. 

we  understand  by  "education"  the  influence  of  the  individual  upon 
the  individual,  exerted  with  the  object  of  developing  his  powers  in  a 
conscious  and  methodical  manner,  either  generally  or  in  special 
directions,  the  educator  being  relative!}'  mature,  and  exercising 
authority  over  the  relatively  immature  pupil.  Without  authority  on 
the  one  hand  and  obedience  on  the  other,  education  would  lack 
its  ethical  basis  —  a  neglect  of  the  will-training  could  not  be  com- 
pensated for  by  any  amount  of  knowledge  or  smartness. 

§  18.  The  general  province  of  education  includes  the  development 
of  the  individual  into  the  theoretical  and  practical  reason  immanent 
in  him.  The  definition  which  limits  education  to  the  development  of 
the  individual  into  ethical  customs  (obedience  to  morality,  social 
conventionalities,  and  the  laws  of  the  state  —  Hegel's  definition  is 
here  referred  to:  "  The  object  of  education  is  to  make  men  ethical  ") 
is  not  comprehensive  enough,  because  it  ignores  the  side  of  the  intel- 
lect, and  takes  note  only  of  the  will.  The  individual  should  not  only 
be  man  in  general  (as  he  is  through  the  adoption  of  moral  and 
ethical  forms — which  are  general  forms,  customs,  or  laws,  and  thus 
the  forms  imposed  by  the  will  of  the  race),  but  he  should  also  be 
a  self-conscious  subject,  a  particular  individual  (man,  through  his 
intellect,  exists  for  himself  as  an  individual,  while  through  his  general 
habits  and  customs  he  loses  his  individuality  and  spontaneity). 

§  19.  Education  has  a  definite  object  in  view  and  it  proceeds  by 
grades  of  progress  toward  it.  The  systematic  tendency  is  essential 
to  all  education,  properly  so  called. 

§  20.  Division  of  labor  has  become  requisite  in  the  higher  spheres 
of  teaching.  The  growing  multiplicity  of  branches  of  knowledge 
creates  the  necessity  for  the  specialist  as  teacher.  With  this  tendency 
to  specialties  it  becomes  more  and  more  difficult  to  preserve  what 
is  so  essential  to  the  pupil  —  his  rounded  human  culture  and  symmetry 
of  development.  The  citizen  of  modern  civilization  sometimes 
appears  to  be  an  artificial  product  by  the  side  of  the  versatility  of 
the  savage  man. 

§  21.  From  this  necessity  of  the  division  of  labor  in  modern  times 
there  arises  the  demand  for  two  kinds  of  educational  institutions  — 
those  devoted  to  general  education  (common  schools,  colleges,  etc.), 
and  special  schools  (for  agriculture,  medicine,  mechanic  arts,  etc). 

§  22.  The  infinite  possibility  of  culture  for  the  individual  leaves, 
of  course,  his  actual  accomplishment  a  mere  approximation  to  a 
complete  education.  Born  idiots  are  excluded  from  the  possibility  of 
education,  because  the  lack  of  universal  ideas  in  their  consciousness 


The  Science  of  Education.  43 

precludes  to  that  class  of  unfortunates  anything  beyond  a  mere 
mechanical  training. 

§  23.  Spirit,  or  mind,  makes  its  own  nature ;  it  is  what  it  pro- 
duces —  a  self-result.  From  this  follows  the  form  of  education.  It 
commences  with  ( 1 )  undeveloped  mind  —  that  of  the  infant  — wherein 
nearly  all  is  potential,  and  but  little  is  actualized;  (2)  its  first  stage 
of  development  is  self-estrangement  —  it  is  absorbed  in  the  observa- 
tion of  objects  around  it;  (3)  but  it  discovers  laws  and  principles 
(universality)  in  external  nature,  and  finally  identifies  them  with  rea- 
son —  it  comes  to  recognize  itself  in  nature  —  to  recognize  conscious 
mind  as  the  creator  and  preserver  of  the  external  world — and  thus 
becomes  at  home  in  nature.  Education  does  not  create,  but  it  eman- 
cipates. 

§  24.  This  process  of  self-estrangement  and  its  removal  belongs  to 
all  culture.  The  mind  must  fix  its  attention  upon  what  is  foreign  to 
it,  and  penetrate  its  disguise.  It  will  discover  its -own  substance 
under  the  seeming  alien  being.  Wonder  is  the  accompaniment  of  this 
stage  of  estrangement.  The  love  of  travel  and  adventure  arises  from 
this  basis. 

§  25.  Labor  is  distinguished  from  play :  The  former  concentrates 
its  energies  on  some  object,  with  the  purpose  of  making  it  conform  to 
its  will  and  purpose ;  play  occupies  itself  with  its  object  according  to 
its  caprice  and  arbitrariness,  and  has  no  care  for  the  results  or  pro- 
ducts of  its  activity ;  work  is  prescribed  by  authority,  while  play  is 
necessarily  spontaneous. 

§  26.  Work  and  Play:  the  distinction  between  them.  In  play  the 
child  feels  that  he  has  entire  control  over  the  object  with  which  he  is 
denling,  both  in  respect  to  its  existence  and  the  object  for  which  it 
exists.  His  arbitrary  will  may  change  both  with  perfect  impunity, 
since  all  depends  upon  his  caprice  ;  he  exercises  his  powers  in  play  ac- 
cording to  his  natural  proclivities,  and  therein  finds  scope  to  devel- 
ope  his  own  individuality.  In  work,  on  the  contrary,  he  must  have 
respect  for  the  object  with  which  he  deals.  It  must  be  held  sacred 
against  his  caprice,  must  not  be  destroyed  nor  injured  in  any 
way,  and  its  object  must  likewise  be  respected.  His  own  personal 
inclinations  must  be  entirely  subordinated,  and  the  business  that  he 
is  at  work  upon  must  be  carried  forward  in  accordance  with  its 
own  ends  and  aims,  and  without  reference  to  his  own  feelings  in  the 
matter. 

Thus  work  teaches  the  pupil  the  lesson  of  self-sacrifice  (the  right 
of  superiority  which  the  general  interest  possesses  over  the  particular), 
while  play  develops  his  personal  idiosyncrasy. 


44  The  Science  of  Education. 

§  27.  Without  play,  the  child  would  become  more  and  more  a  ma- 
chine, and  lose  all  freshness  and  spontaneity  —  all  originality.  With- 
out work,  he  would  develop  into  a  monster  of  caprice  and  arbitrari- 
ness. 

From  the  fact  that  man  must  learn  to  combine  with  man,  in  order 
that  the  individual  may  avail  himself  of  the  experience  and  labors 
of  his  fellow-men,  self-sacrifice  for  the  sake  of  combination  is  the 
great  lesson  of  life.  But  as  this  should  be  voluntary  self-sacrifice, 
education  must  train  the  child  equally  in  the  two  directions  of  spon- 
taneity and  obedience.  The  educated  man  finds  recreation  in  change 
of  work. 

§28.  Education  seeks  to  assimilate  its  object  —  to  make  what 
was  alien  and  strange  to  the  pupil  into  something  familiar  and  habitual 
to  him.  [The  pupil  is  to  attack,  one  after  the  other,  the  foreign 
realms  in  the  world  of  nature  and  man,  and  conquer  them  for  his  own, 
so  that  he  can  be  "'at  home  "  in  them.  It  is  the  necessary  condition 
of  all  growth,  all  culture,  that  one  widens  his  own  individuality  by 
this  conquest  of  new  provinces  alien  to  him.  By  this  the  individual 
transcends  the  narrow  limits  of  particularity  and  becomes  generic  — 
the  individual  becomes  the  species.  A  good  definition  of  education 
is  this:  it  is  the  process  by  which  the  individual  man  elevates  himself 
to  the  species.] 

§  29.  (1)  Therefore,  the  first  requirement  in  education  is  that  the 
pupil  shall  acquire  the  habit  of  subordinating  his  likes  and  dislikes  to 
the  attainment  of  a  rational  object. 

It  is  necessary  that  he  shall  acquire  this  indifference  to  his  own 
pleasure,  even  by  employing  his  powers  on  that  which  does  not  ap- 
peal to  his  interest  in  the  remotest  degree. 

§  30.  Habit  soon  makes  us  familiar  with  those  subjects  which 
seemed  so  remote  from  our  personal  interest,  and  they  become  agree- 
able to  us.  The  objects,  too,  assume  a  new  interest  upon  nearer  ap- 
proach, as  being  useful  or  injurious  to  us.  That  is  useful  which  serves 
us  as  a  means  for  the  realization  of  a  rational  purpose  ;  injurious,  if 
it  hinders  such  realization.  It  happens  that  objects  are  useful  in  one 
sense  and  injurious  in  another,  and  vice  versa.  Education  must 
make  the  pupil  capable  of  deciding  on  the  usefulness  of  an  object,  by 
reference  to  its  effect  on  his  permanent  vocation  in  life. 

§  31.  But  good  and  evil  are  the  ethical  distinctions  which  furnish 
the  absolute  standard  to  which  to  refer  the  question  of  the  usefulness 
of  objects  and  actions. 

§  32.  (2)  Habit  is  (a)  passive,  or  (b)  active.  The  passive  habit 
s  that  which  gives  us  the  power  to  retain  our  equipoise  of  mind  in  the 


The  Science  of  Education.  45 

midst  of  a  world  of  changes  (pleasure  and  pain,  grief  and  joy,  etc). 
The  active  habit  gives  us  skill,  presence  of  mind,  tact  in  emergen- 
cies, etc. 

§  33.  (3)  Education  deals  altogether  with  the  formation  of  habits. 
For  it  aims  to  make  some  condition  or  form  of  activity  into  a  second 
nature  for  the  pupil.  But  this  involves,  also,  the  breaking  up  of  previ- 
ous habits.  This  power  to  break  up  habits,  as  well  as  to  form  them, 
is  necessary  to  the  freedom  of  the  individual. 

§  34.  Education  deals  with  these  complementary  relations  (an- 
titheses) :  (a)  authority  and  obedience ;  (b)  rationality  (general 
forms)  and  individuality  ;  (c)  work  and  play ;  (d)  habit  (general  cus- 
tom) and  spontaneity.  The  development  and  reconciliation  of  these 
opposite  sides  in  the  pupil's  character,  so  that  they  become  his  second 
nature,  removes  the  phase  of  constraint  which  at  first  accompanies 
the  formal  inculcation  of  rules,  and  the  performance  of  prescribed 
tasks.  The  freedom  of  the  pupil  is  the  ultimate  object  to  be  kept  in 
view,  but  a  too  early  use  of  freedom  may  work  injury  to  the  pupil. 
To  remove  a  pupil  from  all  temptation  would  be  to  remove  possi- 
bilities of  growth  in  strength  to  resist  it ;  on  the  other  hand,  to  ex- 
pose him  needlessly  to  temptation  is  fiendish. 

§  35.  Deformities  of  character  in  the  pupil  should  be  carefully 
traced  back  to  their  origin,  so  that  they  may  be  explained  by  their 
history.  Only  by  comprehending  the  historic  growth  of  an  organic 
defect  are  we  able  to  prescribe  the  best  remedies. 

§  36.  If  the  negative  behavior  of  the  pupil  (his  bad  behavior) 
results  from  ignorance  due  to  his  own  neglect,  or  to  his  wilfulness, 
it  should  be  met  directly  by  an  act  of  authority  on  the  part  of  the 
teacher  (and  without  an  appeal  to  reason).  An  appeal  should  be 
made  to  the  understanding  of  the  pupil  only  when  he  is  somewhat 
mature,  or  shows  by  his  repetition  of  the  offence  that  his  proclivity 
is  deep-seated,  and  requires  an  array  of  all  good  influences  to  rein- 
force his  feeble  resolutions  to  amend. 

§  37.  Reproof,  accompanied  b}7  threats  of  punishment,  is  apt  to  de- 
generate into  scolding. 

§  38.  After  the  failure  of  other  means,  punishment  should  be 
resorted  to.  Inasmuch  as  the  punishment  should  be  for  the  pur- 
pose of  making  the  pupil  realize  that  it  is  the  consequence  of  his 
deed  returning  on  himself,  it  should  always  be  administered  for 
some  particular  act  of  his,  and  this  should  be  specified.  The 
"overt  act"  is  the  only  thing  which  a  man  can  be  held  account- 
able for  in  a  court  of  justice ;  although  it  is  true  that  the  harboring 


46  The  Science  of  Education. 

of  evil  thoughts  or  intentions  is  a  sin,  yet  it  is  not  a  crime  until 
realized  in  an  overt  act. 

§  40.  Punishment  should  be  regulated,  not  by  abstract  rules,  but  in 
view  of  the  particular  case  and  its  attending  circumstances. 

§  41.  Sex  and  age  of  pupil  should  be  regarded  in  prescribing  the 
mode  and  degree  of  punishment.  Corporal  punishment  is  best  for 
pupils  who  are  very  immature  in  mind  ;  when  they  are  more  developed 
they  may  be  punished  by  any  imposed  restraint  upon  their  free  wills 
which  will  isolate  them  from  the  ordinary  routine  followed  by  their 
fellow-pupils.  (Deprivation  of  the  right  to  do  as  others  do  is  a 
wholesome  species  of  punishment  for  those  old  or  mature  enough  to 
feel  its  effects,  for  it  tends  to  secure  respect  for  the  regular  tasks  by 
elevating  them  to  the  rank  of  rights  and  privileges.)  Forj-oung  men 
and  women,  the  punishment  should  be  of  a  kind  that  is  based  on  a 
sense  of  honor. 

§  42.  (1)  Corporal  punishment  should  be  properly  administered  by 
means  of  the  rod,  subduing  wilful  defiance  by  the  application  of 
force. 

§  43.  (2)  Isolation  makes  the  pupil  realize  a  sense  of  his  depend- 
ence upon  human  society,  and  upon  the  expression  of  this  dependence 
by  cooperation  in  the  common  tasks.  Pupils  should  not  be  shut  up  in  a 
dark  room,  nor  removed  from  the  personal  supervision  of  the  teacher. 
(To  shut  up  two  or  more  in  a  room  without  supervision  is  not  isola- 
tion, but  association ;  only  it  is  association  for  mischief,  and  not  for 
study. ) 

§  44.  (3)  Punishment  based  on  the  sense  of  honor  may  or  may 
not  be  based  on  isolation.  It  implies  a  state  of  maturity  on  the  part 
of  the  pupil.  Through  his  offence  the  pupil  has  destroyed  his 
equality  with  his  fellows,  and  has  in  reality,  in  his  inmost  nature, 
isolated  himself  from  them.  Corporal  punishment  is  external, 
but  it  may  be  accompanied  with  a  keen  sense  of  dishonor.  Isolation, 
also,  may,  to  a  pupil,  who  is  sensitive  to  honor,  be  a  severe  blow  to 
self-respect.  But  a  punishment  founded  entirely  on  the  sense  of 
honor  would  be  wholly  internal,  and  have  no  external  discomfort 
attached  to  it. 

§  45.  The  necessity  of  carefully  adapting  the  punishment  to  the 
age  and  maturity  of  the  pupil,  renders  it  the  most  difficult  part  of  the 
teacher's  duties.  It  is  essential  that  the  air  and  manner  of  the 
teacher  who  punishes  should  be  that  of  one  who  acts  from  a  sense  of 
painful  duty,  and  not  from  any  delight  in  being  the  cause  of  suffer- 
ing. Not  personal  likes  and  dislikes,  but  the  rational  necessity  which 


The  Science  of  Education.  47 

is  over  teacher  and  pupil  alike,  causes  the  infliction  of  pain  on  the 
pupil. 

§  46.  Punishment  is  the  final  topic  to  be  considered  under  the  head 
of  "Form  of  Education." 

In  the  act  of  punishment  the  teacher  abandons  the  legitimate  prov- 
ince of  education,  which  seeks  to  make  the  pupil  rational  or  obedient 
to  what  is  reasonable,  as  a  habit,  and  from  his  own  free  will.  The  pupil 
is  punished  in  order  that  he  may  be  made  to  conform  to  the  rational, 
by  the  application  of  constraint.  Another  will  is  substituted  for  the 
pupil's,  and  good  behavior  is  produced,  but  not  by  the  pupil's  free 
act.  While  education  finds  a  negative  limit  in  punishment,  it 
finds  a  positive  limit  in  the  accomplishment  of  its  legitimate  object, 
which  is  the  emancipation  of  the  pupil  from  the  state  of  imbecility, 
as  regards  mental  and  moral  self-control,  into  the  ability  to  direct 
himself  rationally,  When  the  pupil  has  acquired  the  discipline  which 
enables  him  to  direct  his  studies  properly,  and  to  control  his  inclina- 
tions in  such  a  manner  as  to  pursue  his  work  regularly,  the  teacher 
is  no  longer  needed  for  him  —  he  becomes  his  own  teacher. 

There  may  be  two  extreme  views  on  this  subject — the  one  tending 
towards  the  negative  extreme  of  requiring  the  teacher  to  do  every- 
thing for  the  pupil,  substituting  his  will  for  that  of  the  pupil,  and 
the  other  view  tending  to  the  positive  extreme,  and  leaving  eveiything 
to  the  pupil,  even  before  his  will  is  trained  into  habits  of  self-control, 
or  his  mind  provided  with  the  necessary  elementary  branches 
requisite  for  the  prosecution  of  further  stndy. 

§  47.  (1)  The  subjective  limit  of  education  (on  the  negative 
side)  is  to  be  found  in  the  individuality  of  the  pupil  —  the  limit  to  his 
natural  capacity. 

§  48.  (2)  The  objective  limit  to  education  lies  in  the  amount  of 
time  that  the  person  may  devote  to  his  training.  It,  therefore, 
depends  largely  upon  wealth,  or  other  fortunate  circumstances. 

§  49.  (3)  The  absolute  limit  of  education  is  the  positive  limit 
(see  §  46),  beyond  which  the  youth  passes  into  freedom  from  the 
school,  as  a  necessary  instrumentality  for  further  culture. 

§  50.  The  pre-arranged  pattern-making  work  of  the  school  is  now 
done,  but  self-education  may  and  should  go  on  indefinitely,  and  will 
go  on  if  the  education  of  the  school  has  really  arrived  at  its  "  abso- 
lute "  limit  —  i.  e.,  has  fitted  the  pupil  for  self-education.  Emanci- 
pation from  the  school  does  not  emancipate  one  from  learning 
through  his  fellow-men.  Man's  spiritual  life  is  one  depending  upon 
cooperation  with  his  fellow-men.  Each  must  avail  himself  of  the 


48  The  Science  of  Education. 

experience  of  his  fellow-men,  and  in  turn  communicate  his  own 
experience  to  the  common  fund  of  the  race.  Thus  each  lives  the 
life  of  the  whole,  and  all  live  for  each.  School-education  gives  the 
pupil  the  instrumentalities  with  which  to  enable  him  to  participate  in 
this  fund  of  experience  —  this  common  life  of  the  race.  After  school- 
education  comes  the  still  more  valuable  education,  which,  however, 
without  the  school,  would  be  in  a  great  measure  impossible. 


ERRATA. 

2  26.  Last  two  paragraphs  should  be  within  quotation  marks,  being  from  an 

English  author, 
g  29.    The  second  and  third  paragraphs  belong  to  $  30.  —  the  numbering  being 

omitted. 
33.   Line  four — "instructive"  should  be  "intuitive." 


The  Science  of  Education.  49 


SECOND   PART. 
The   Special  Elements  of  Education. 

§  51.  Education  is  the  development  of  the  theoretical  and 
practical  Reason  which  is  inborn  in  the  human  being.  Its 
end  is  to  be  accomplished  by  the  labor  which  transforms  a 
condition,  existent  at  first  only  as  an  ideal,  into  a  fixed  habit, 
and  changes  the  natural  individuality  into  a  glorified  humanity. 
When  the  youth  stands,  so  to  speak,  on  his  own  feet,  he  is 
emancipated  from  education,  and  education  then  finds  its 
limit.  The  special  elements  which  may  be  said  to  make  up 
education  are  the  life,  the  cognition,  and  the  will  of  man. 
Without  the  first,  the  real  nature  of  the  soul  can  never  be 
made  really  to  appear;  without  cognition,  he  can  have  no  gen- 
uine will —  i.e.,  one  of  which  he  is  conscious;  and  without 
will,  no  self-assurance,  either  of  life  or  of  cognition.  It  must 
not  be  forgotten  that  these  three  so-called  elements  are  not  to 

O 

be  held  apart  in  the  active  work  of  education  ;  for  they  are  insep- 
arable and  continually  interwoven  the  one  with  the  other.  But 
none  the  less  do  they  determine  their  respective  consequences, 
and  sometimes  one,  sometimes  another  has  the  supremacy.  In 
infancy,  up  to  the  fifth  or  sixth  year,  the  physical  develop- 
ment, or  mere  living,  is  the  main  consideration  :  the  next 
period,  that  of  childhood,  is  the  time  of  acquiring  knowledge, 
in  which  the  child  takes  possession  of  the  theory  of  the  world 
as  it  is  handed  down  —  a  tradition  of  the  past,  such  as  man 
has  made  it  through  his  experience  and -insight;  and  finally, 
the  period  of  youth  must  pave  the  way  to  a  practical  activity, 
the  character  of  which  the  self-determination  of  the  will  must 
decide. 

§  52.  We  may,  then,  divide  the  elements  of  Pedagogics  into 
4 


50  The  Science  of  Education. 

three  sections:  (1)  the  physical,  (2)  the  intellectual,  (3)  the 
practical.  (The  words  "  orthobiotics,"  "didactics,"  and 
"  pragmatics"  might  be  used  to  characterize  them.) 

^Esthetic  training  is  only  an  element  of  the  intellectual, 
as  social,  moral,  and  religious  training  are  elements  of  the 
practical.  But  because  these  latter  elements  relate  to  exter- 
nal things  (affairs  of  the  world),  the  name  pragmatics,  is  appro- 
priate. In  so  far  as  education  touches  on  the  principles  which 
underlie  ethics,  politics,  and  religion,  it  concurs  with  those 
sciences,  but  it  is  distinguished  from  them  in  the  capacity 
which  it  imparts  for  solving  the  problems  presented  by  the 
others. 

The  scientific  order  of  topics  must  be  established  through 
the  fact  that  the  earlier,  as  the  more  abstract,  constitute  the  con- 
dition of  their  presupposed  end  and  aim,  and  the  later  because 
the  more  concrete  constitute  the  ground  of  the  former,  and 
consequently  their  final  cause,  or  the  end  for  which  they  exist ; 
just  as  in  human  beings,  life  in  the  order  of  time  comes  before 
cognition,  and  cognition  before  will,  although  life  really  pre- 
supposes cognition,  and  cognition  will. 


FIRST  DIVISION. 

PHYSICAL  EDUCATION,  OR  ORTHOBIOTICS. 

§  53.  Only  when  we  rightly  comprehend  the  process  of 
life  may  we  know  how  to  live  aright.  Life,  the  "  circle  of 
eternal  change,"  is  constantly  transforming  the  inorganic  into 
the  organic,  and  after  using  it,  returning  it  again  to  the  realm  of 
the  inorganic.  Whatever  it  does  not  assimilate  of  that  which  it 
has  taken  in  simply  as  a  stimulant,  and  whatever  has  become 
dead,  it  separates  from  itself  and  rejects.  The  organism  is  in 
perfect  health  when  it  accomplishes  this  double  task  of  or- 
ganizing and  disorganizing.  On  the  comprehension  of  this 
single  fact  all  laws  of  physical  health  or  of  hygiene  are  based. 
This  idea  of  the  essence  of  life  is  expressed  by  Goethe  in  his 
Faust,  where  he  sees  the  golden  buckets  perpetually  rising 


The  Science  of  Education.  51 

and  sinking.1  When  the  equilibrium  of  the  upward  and  down- 
ward motion  is  disturbed,  we  have  disease.  When  the  motion 
ceases  we  have  death,  in  which  the  whole  organism  becomes 
inorganic,  and  the  "  dust  returns  to  dust." 

§  54.  It  follows  from  this  that  not  only  in  the  organism  as 
a  whole,  but  in  every  organ,  and  every  part  of  every  organ, 
this  restless  change  of  the  inorganic  to  the  organic  is  going  on. 
Every  cell  has  its  own  history,  and  this  history  is  only  the 
same  as  that  of  the  whole  of  which  it  forms  a  part.  Activity 
is  then  not  inimical  to  the  organism,  but  is  the  appointed 
means  by  which  the  progressive  and  retrogressive  metamor- 
phoses must  be  carried  out.  In  order  that  the  process  may 
go  on  harmoniously,  or,  in  other  words,  that  the  body  may  be 
healthy,  the  whole  organism,  and  every  part  of  it  in  its  own 
way,  must  have  its  period  of  productive  activity  and  then 
also  its  period  of  rest  in  which  it  finds  renewal  of  strength  for 
another  period  of  activity.  Thus  we  have  waking  and  sleep, 
inspiration  and  expiration  of  air.  Periodicity  is  the  law  of 
life.  When  we  understand  the  relative  antagonism  (their  stage 
of  tension)  of  the  different  organs,  and  their  cycles  of  activity, 
we  shall  hold  the  secret  of  the  constant  self-renewal  of  life.  This 
thought  finds  expression  in  the  old  fairy  stories  of  "The 
Search  after  the  Fountain  of  Youth."  And  the  figure  of  the 
fountain,  with  its  rising  and  falling  waters,  doubtless  finds  its 
origin  in  the  dim  comprehension  of  the  endless  double  move- 
ment, or  periodicity  of  life. 

§  55.  When  to  any  organ,  or  to  the  whole  organism,  not  suf- 
ficient time  is  allowed  for  it  to  withdraw  into  itself  and  to 
repair  waste,  we  are  conscious  of  fatigue.  While  the  other 
organs  all  rest,  however,  one  special  organ  may,  as  if  sep- 
arated from  them,  sustain  a  long-continued  effort  of  activity 
even  to  the  point  of  fatigue,  without  injury — as,  e.g.,  the  lungs 
in  talking  while  all  the  other  members  are  at  rest.  But,  on 
the  other  hand,  it  is  not  well  to  talk  and  run  at  the  same  time. 


1  Faust;  Part  L,  Scene  I.  "How  all  weaves  itself  into  the  Whole!  Each 
works  and  lives  in  the  other!  How  the  heavenly  influences  ascend  and  descend, 
and  reach  each  other  the  golden  buckets !  " 


52  The  Science  of  Education. 

The  idea  that  the  body  may  be  preserved  in  a  healthy  state 
longer  by  sparing  it  —  i.e.,  by  inactivity  —  is  an  error  which 
springs  from  a  false  and  mechanical  conception  of  life.  It  is 
just  as  foolish  to  imagine  that  health  depends  on  the  abundance 
and  excellence  of  food,  for  without  the  power  of  assimilating 
the  food  taken,  nourishment  of  whatever  kind  does  more  harm 
than  good  ;  all  real  strength  develops  from  activity  alone. 

§  56.  Physical  education,  according  as  it  relates  to  the  re- 
pairing, the  muscular,  or  the  emotional  activities,  is  divided 
into  (1)  diatetics,  (2)  gymnastics,  (3)  sexual  education. 
In  the  direct  activity  of  life  these  all  interact  with  each  other, 
but  for  our  purposes  we  are  obliged  to  speak  of  them  as  if 
they  worked  independently.  Moreover,  in  the  development 
of  the  human  being,  they  come  into  maturity  of  development 
in  a  certain  order:  nutrition,  muscular  growth,  sexual  ma- 
turity. But  Pedagogics  can  treat  of  these  only  as  they  are 
found  in  the  infant,  the  child,  and  the  youth;  for  with  the 
arrival  of  mature  life,  education  is  over. 

FIRST  CHAPTER. 
Diatetics. 

§  57.  By  diatetics  we  mean  the  art  of  repairing  the  constant 
waste  of  the  system,  and,  in  childhood,  of  also  building  it  up  to 
its  full  form  and  size.  Since  in  reality  each  organism  has  its 
own  way  of  doing  this,  the  diatetical  practice  must  vary 
somewhat  with  sex,  age,  temperament,  occupation,  and  cir- 
cumstances. The  science  of  Pedagogics  has  then,  in  this  de- 
partment, only  to  enunciate  general  principles.  If  we  go  into 
details,  we  fall  into  triviality.  Nothing  can  be  of  more  impor- 
tance for  the  whole  life  than  the  way  in  which  the  physical 
education  is  managed  hi  the  very  first  stages  of  development. 
So  generally  is  this  fact  accepted,  that  almost  every  nation  has 
its  own  distinct  system,  which  has  been  carefully  elaborated. 
Many  of  these  systems,  no  doubt,  are  characterized  by  gross 
errors,  and  widely  differ  as  to  time,  place,  and  character,  and 
yet  they  all  have  a  justification  for  their  peculiar  form. 


The  Science  of  Education.  53 

§  58.  The  best  food  for  the  infsint  in  the  first  months  of  its 
life  is  its  mother's  milk.  The  employment  of  another  nurse, 
if  a  general  custom,  as  in  France,  is  highly  objectionable, 
since  with  the  milk  the  child  is  likely  to  imbibe  to  some  ex- 
tent his  physical  and  ethical  nature.  The  milk  of  an  animal 
can  never  supply  the  place  to  a  child  of  that  of  its  own  mother. 
In  Walter  Scott's  story  of  The  Fair  Maid  of  Perth,  Eachim 
is  represented  as  timorous  by  nature,  having  been  nourished 
by  a  white  doe  after  the  death  of  his  mother. 

§  59.  When  the  teeth  make  their  appearance,  it  is  a  sign  that 
the  child  is  ready  for  solid  food  ;  and  yet,  till  the  second  teeth 
appear,  light,  half-solid  food  and  vegetables  should  constitute 
the  principal  part  of  the  diet. 

§  60.  When  the  second  teeth  have  conje,  then  the  organism 
demands  both  vegetable  and  animal  food.  Too  much  meat  is, 
doubtless,  harmful.  But  it  is  an  error  to  suppose  that  man 
was  intended  to  eat  vegetables  alone,  and  that,  as  some  have 
said,  the  adoption  of  animal  food  is  a  sign  of  his  degeneracy. 

The  Hindoos,  who  live  principally  on  a  vegetable  diet,  are 
not  at  all,  as  has  been  asserted,  a  mild  and  gentle  race.  A 
glance  into  their  stories,  especially  their  erotic  poetry,  proves 
them  to  be  quite  as  passionate  as  any  other  people. 

§  61.  Man  is  an  omnivorous  being.  Children  have,  there- 
fore, a  natural  desire  to  taste  of  every  thing.  With  them,  eat- 
ing and  drinking  have  still  a  poetic  side,  and  there  is  a  pleas- 
ure in  them  which  is  not  wholly  the  mere  pleasure  of  taste. 
Their  proclivity  to  taste  of  every  thing  should  not,  therefore, 
be  harshly  censured,  unless  it  is  associated  with  disobedience, 
or  pursued  in  a  clandestine  manner,  or  when  it  betrays  cun- 
ning and  greediness. 

§  62.  Children  need  much  sleep,  because  they  are  growing 
and  changing  so  fast.  In  later  years,  waking  and  sleeping 
must  be  regulated,  and  yet  not  too  exactly. 

§  63.  The  clothing  of  children  should  follow  the  form  of 
the  body,  and  should  be  large  enough  to  give  them  free  room 
for  the  unfettered  movement  of  every  limb  in  play. 

The  Germans  do  more  rationally  for  children  in  the  matter 
of  sleep  and  of  dress  than  in  that  of  food,  which  they  often 


54  The  Science  of  Education. 

make  too  rich,  and  accompany  with  coffee,  tea,  etc.  The 
clothing  should  be  not  only  suitable  in  shape  and  size,  it  must 
also  be  made  of  simple  and  inexpensive  material,  so  that  the 
child  may  not  be  hampered  in  his  play  by  the  constant  anxiety 
that  a  spot  or  a  rent  may  cause  fault  to  be  found  with  him. 
If  we  foster  in  the  child's  mind  too  much  thought  about  his 
clothes,  we  tend  to  produce  either  a  narrow-mindedness,  which 
treats  affairs  of  the  moment  with  too  much  respect  and  con- 
cerns itself  with  little  things,  or  an  empty  vanity.  Vanity 
is  often  produced  by  dressing  children  in  a  manner  that 
attracts  attention.  (No  one  can  fail  to  remark  the  peculiar 
healthful  gayety  of  German  children,  and  to  contrast  it  with 
the  different  appearance  of  American  children.  It  is  undoubt- 
edly true  that  the  climate  has  much  to  do  with  this  result,  but 
it  is  also  true  that  we  may  learn  much  from  that  nation  in  our 
way  of  treating  children.  Already  we  import  their  children's 
story-books,  to  the  infinite  delight  of  the  little  ones,  and 
copies  of  their  children's  pictures  are  appropriated  constantly 
by  our  children's  magazines  and  picture-books.  It  is  to  be 
greatly  desired  that  we  should  adopt  the  very  sensible  custom 
which  prevails  in  Germany,  of  giving  to  each  child  its  own  lit- 
tle bed  to  sleep  in,  no  matter  how  many  may  be  required  ;  and, 
in  general,  we  shall  not  go  far  astray  if  we  follow  the  Germans 
in  their  treatment  of  their  happy  children.) 

§  64.  Cleanliness  is  a  virtue  to  which  children  should  be 
trained,  not  only  for  the  sake  of  their  physical  health,  but  also 
because  it  has  a  decided  moral  influence.  Cleanliness  will  not 
have  things  deprived  of  their  distinctive  and  individual  char- 
acter, and  become  again  a  part  of  original  chaos.  It  is  only  a 
form  of  order  which  remands  all  things,  dirt  included,  to  their 
own  places,  and  will  not  endure  to  have  things  mixed  and 
confused.  All  adaptation  in  dress  comes  from  this  same  prin- 
ciple. When  every  thing  is  in  its  proper  place,  all  dressing 
will  be  suitable  to  the  occasion  and  to  the  wearer,  and  the  era 
of  good  taste  in  dress  will  have  come.  Dirt  itself,  as  Lord 
Palmerston  so  wittily  said,  is  nothing  but  "  matter  out  of 
place."  Cleanliness  would  hold  every  individual  thing  strictly 
to  its  differences  from  other  things,  and  for  the  reason  that  it 


The  Science  of  Education.  55 

makes  pure  air,  cleanliness  of  his  own  body,  ofhis  clothing,  and 
of  all  his  surroundings  really  necessary  to  man,  it  develops  in 
him  the  feeling  for  the  proper  limitations  of  all  existent 
things.  (Emerson  says  :  "  Therefore  is  space  and  therefore  is 
time,  that  men  may  know  that  things  are  not  huddled  and 
lumped,  but  sundered  and  divisible."  He  might  have  said, 
"  Therefore  is  cleanliness.") 

SECOND  CHAPTER. 
Gymnastics. 

§  65.  Gymnastics  is  the  art  of  cultivating  in  a  rational 
manner  the  muscular  system.  The  activity  of  the  voluntary 
muscles,  which  are  under  the  control  of  the  brain,  in  dis- 
tinction from  the  involuntary,  which  are  under  the  control 
of  the  spinal  cord,  renders  possible  the  connection  of  man 
with  the  external  world,  and  acts  in  a  reflex  manner  back 
upon  the  involuntary  or  automatic  muscles  for  the  purposes 
of  repair  and  sensation.  Because  the  activity  of  muscle-fibre 
consists  in  the  change  from  contraction  to  expansion,  and  the 
reverse,  gymnastics  must  use  a  constant  change  of  movements 
which  shall  not  only  make  tense,  but  relax  the  muscles  that 
are  to  be  exercised.  , 

§  66.  The  gymnastic  art  among  any  people  will  always 
bear  a  certain  relation  to  its  art  of  war.  So  long  as  fighting 
consists  mainly  of  personal,  hand-to-hand  encounters  of  two 
combatants,  so  long  will  gymnastics  turn  its  chief  effort 
towards  the  development  of  the  greatest  possible  amount  of 
individual  strength  and  dexterity.  But  after  the  invention 
of  fire-arms  of  long  range  has  changed  the  whole  idea 
of  war,  the  individual  becomes  only  one  member  of  a  body, 
the  army,  the  division,  or  the  regiment,  and  emerges  from 
this  position  into  his  individuality  again  only  occasionally, 
as  in  sharpshooting,  in  the  onset,  or  in  the  retreat.  Modern 
gymnastics,  as  an  art,  can  never  be  the  same  as  the  ancient 
art,  for  this  very  reason  :  that  because  of  the  loss  of  the 
individual  man  in  the  general  mass  of  combatants,  the  matter 


56  The  Science  of  Education. 

of  personal  bravery  is  not  of  so  much  importance  as  formerly. 
The  same  essential  difference  between  ancient  and  modern 
gymnastics,  would  result  from  the  subjective,  or  internal 
character  of  the  modern  spirit.  It  is  impossible  for  us,  in 
modern  times,  to  devote  so  much  thought  to  the  care  of  the 
body  and  to  the  reverential  admiration  of  its  beauty  as  did 
the  Greeks. 

The  Turners'  Unions  and  Turners'  Halls  in  Germany  be- 
longed to  the  period  of  intense  political  enthusiasm  in  the 
German  youth,  and  had  a  political  significance.  Now  they 
have  come  back  again  to  their  place  as  an  instrument  of  educa- 
tion, and  seem  in  great  cities  to  be  of  much  importance.  In 
mountainous  countries,  and  in  country  life  generally,  a  definite 
gymnastic  drill  is  of  much  less  importance,  for  much  and 
varied  exercise  is  of  necessity  a  constant  part  of  the  daily  life 
of  every  one. 

The  constant  opportunity  and  the  impulse  to  recreation 
helps  in  the  same  direction.  In  cities,  on  the  contrary,  there 
is  not  free  space  enough  either  in  houses  or  yards  for  children 
to  romp  to  their  heart's  and  body's  content.  For  this  reason 
a  gymnasium  is  here  useful,  so  that  they  may  have  compan- 
ionship in  their  plays.  For  girls  this  exercise  is  less  necessary. 
Dancing  may  take  its  place,  and  systematic  exercise  should  be 
used  only  where  there  is  a  tendency  to  some  weakness  or  de- 
formity. They  are  not  to  become  Amazons.  On  the  other 
hand,  boys  need  the  feeling  of  comradeship.  It  is  true  they 
find  this  in  some  measure  in  school,  but  they  are  not  there 
perfectly  on  an  equality,  because  the  standing  is  determined  to 
some  extent  by  his  intellectual  ability.  The  academic  youth 
cannot  hope  to  win  any  great  preeminence  in  the  gymnastic 
hall,  and  running,  climbing,  leaping,  and  lifting  do  not  inter- 
est him  very  much  as  he  grows  older.  He  takes  a  far  more 
lively  interest  in  exercises  which  have  a  military  character.  In 
Germany  the  gymnastic  art  is  very  closely  united  with  the  art 
of  war. 

(The  German  idea  of  a  woman's  whole  duty  —  to  knit,  to 
sew,  and  to  obey  implicitly  —  is  perhaps  accountable  for  what 
Rosenkranz  here  says  of  exercise  as  regards  girls.  We,  how- 


The  Science  of  Education.  57 

ever,  who  know  that  the  most  frequent  direct  cause  of  debility 
and  suffering  in  our  young  women  is  simply  and  solely  a  want  of 
muscular  strength,  may  be  pardoned  for  dissenting  from  his 
opinion,  and  for  suggesting  that  dancing  is  not  a  sufficient 
equivalent  for  the  more  violent  games  of  their  brothers.  We 
do  not  fear  to  render  them  Amazons  by  giving  them  more 
genuine  and  systematic  exercise,  both  physically  and  intel- 
lectually. ) 

§  67.  The  main  idea  of  gymnastics,  and  indeed  of  all  exer- 
cise, is  to  give  the  mind  control  over  its  natural  impulses,  to 
make  it  master  of  the  body  which  it  inhabits,  and  of  itself. 
Strength  and  dexterity  must  combine  to  give  us  a  sense 
of  mastership.  Strength  by  itself  produces  the  athelete, 
dexterity  by  itself  the  acrobat.  Pedagogics  must  avoid  both 
these  extremes.  Neither  must  it  base  its  teaching  of  gym- 
nastics on  the  idea  of  utility  —  as,  e.  g.,  that  man  might  save  his 
life  by  swimming,  should  he  fall  into  the  water,  and  hence 
swimming  should  be  taught,  etc. 

The  main  thought  must  be  always  to  enable  the  soul  to 
take  full  and  perfect  possession  of  the  organism,  so  as  not  to 
have  the  bodv  form  a  limit  or  fetter  to  its  action  in  its  dealings 

•/  O 

with  the  external  world.  We  are  to  give  it  a  perfect  instru- 
ment in  the  body,  in  so  far  as  our  care  may  do  so.  Then  we 
are  to  teach  it  to  use  that  instrument,  and  exercise  it  in  that 
use  till  it  is  complete  master  thereof. 

( What  is  said  about  the  impropriety  of  making  athletes  and 
acrobats  may  with  justice  be  also  applied  to  what  is  called 
"vocal  gymnastics;"  whence  it  comes  that  we  have  too 
often  vocal  athletes  and  acrobats  in  our  graduates,  and  few 
readers  who  can  read  at  sight,  without  difficulty  or  hesitation, 
and  with  appreciation  qr  enjoyment,  one  page  of  good 
English.) 

§  68.  There  are  all  grades  of  gymnastic  exercises,  from  the 
simple  to  the  most  complex,  constituting  a  system.  At  first 
sight,  there  seems  to  be  so  much  arbitrariness  in  these 
things  that  it  is  always  very  satisfactory  to  the  mind  to  detect 
some  rational  system  vin  them.  Thus  we  have  movements 
(«)  of  the  lower  extremities,  (6)  of  the  upper,  (c)  of  the 


58  The  Science  of  Education. 

whole  body,  with  corresponding  movements,  alternately,  of  the 
upper  and  of  the  lower  extremities.  We  thus  have  leg,  arm, 
and  trunk  movements. 

§  69.  (1)  The  first  set  of  movements,  those  of  the  legs  and 
feet,  are  of  prime  importance,  because  upon  them  depends  the 
carriage  of  the  whole  body.  They  are  (a)  walking,  (6)  run- 
ning, (c)  leaping ;  and  each  of  these,  also,  may  have  varieties. 
We  may  have  high  and  low  leaping,  and  running  may  be 
distinguished  as  to  whether  it  is  to  be  a  short  and  rapid,  or  a 
slow  and  long-continued  movement.  We  may  also  walk  on 
stilts,  or  run  on  skates.  We  may  leap  with  a  pole,  or  with- 
out one.  Dancing  is  only  an  artistic  and  graceful  combina- 
tion of  these  movements. 

§  70.  (2)  The  second  set  comprises  the  arm  movements, 
which  are  about  the  same  as  the  preceding,  being  (a)  lifting, 
(5)  swinging;  (c)  throwing.  The  use  of  horizontal  poles  and 
bars,  as  well  as  climbing  and  dragging,  belong  to  lifting. 
Under  throwing,  come  quoit  and  ball-playing  and  bowling. 
These  movements  are  distinguished  from  each  other  not  only 
quantitatively,  but  qualitatively  ;  as,  for  instance,  running  is  not 
merely  rapid  walking  ;  it  is  a  different  kind  of  movement  from 
walking,  as  the  position  of  the  extended  and  contracted  muscles 
is  different. 

§  71.  (3)  The  third  set  of  exercises,  those  of  the  trunk, 
differ  from  the  other  two,  which  should  precede  it,  in  that  they 
bring  the  body  into  contact  with  an  object  in  itself  capable  of 
active  resistance,  which  it  has  to  subdue.  This  object  may  be 
an  element  (water),  an  animal,  or  a  human  being  ;  and  thus  we 
have  (a)  swimming,  (6)  riding,  (c)  fighting  in  single  combat. 
In  swimming  we  have  the  elastic  fluid,  water,  to  overcome  by 
means  of  arm  and  leg  movements.  This  may  be  made  very 
difficult  by  a  strong  current,  or  by  rough  water,  and  yet  we 
always  have  here  to  strive  against  an  inanimate  object.  On 
the  contrary,  in  horseback  riding  we  have  to  deal  with 
something  that  has  a  self  of  its  own,  and  the  contest  challenges 
not  our  strength  alone,  but  also  our  skill  and  courage.  The 
motion  is  therefore  very  complex,  and  the  rider  must  be  able 
to  exercise  either  or  all  of  these  qualities  at  need.  But  his 


The  Science  of  Education.  59 

attention  must  not  be  wholly  given  to  his  horse,  for  he  has  to 
observe  also  the  road,  and  indeed  every  thing  around  him.  One 
of  the  greatest  advantages  of  horseback  riding  to  the  over- 
worked student  or  the  business  man  lies  doubtlessly  in  the 
mental  effort.  It  is  impossible  for  him  to  go  on  revolving  in 
his  mind  the  problems  or  the  thoughts  which  have  so  wearied 
or  perplexed  him.  His  whole  attention  is  incessantly  de- 
manded for  the  management  of  his  horse,  for  the  observation 
of  the  road,  which  changes  its  character  with  every  step,  and 
with  the  objects,  far  or  near,  which  are  likely  to  attract  the 
attention  of  the  animal  he  rides.  Much  good,  doubtless,  results 
from  the  exercise  of  the  muscles  of  the  trunk,  which  are  not  in 
any  other  motion  called  into  such  active  play,  but  much  also 
from  the  unavoidable  distraction  of  the  mind  from  the  ordinary 
routine  of  thought,  which  is  the  thing  most  needed.  When 
the  object  which  we  are  to  subdue,  instead  of  being  an  animal,  is 
a  man  like  ourselves,  as  in  single  combat,  we  have  exercise  both 
of  body  and  mind  pushed  to  its  highest  power.  We  have  then 
to  oppose  an  intelligence  which  is  equal  to  our  own,  and  no 
longer  the  intelligence  of  an  unreasoning  animal.  Single  com- 
bat is  the  truly  chivalrous  exercise  ;  and  this  also,  as  in  the  old 
chivalry  time,  may  be  combined  with  horsemanship. 
.  In  single  combat  we  find  also  a  qualitative  distinction,  and 
this  of  three  kinds:  («)  boxing  and  wrestling,  (b)  fighting 
with  canes  or  clubs,  and  (c)  rapier  and  sword  fencing.  The 
Greeks  carried  wrestling  to  its  highest  pitch  of  excellence. 
Among  the  British,  a  nation  of  sailors,  boxing  is  still  retained 
as  a  national  custom.  Fencing  with  a  cane  or  stick  is  much 
in  use  amo'ng  the  French  artisan  class.  The  cane  is  a  sort  of 
refined  club.  When  the  sword  or  rapier  makes  its  appearance, 
we  come  to  mortal  combat.  The  southern  European  excels 
in  the  use  of  the  rapier;  the  Germans  in  that  of  the  sword. 
The  appearance  of  the  pistol  marks  the  degeneracy  of  the  art 
of  single  combat,  as  it  makes  the  weak  man  equal  to  the 
strong,  and  there  is  therefore  no  more  incentive  to  train  the 
body  to  strength  in  order  to  overcome  an  enemy.  (The  trained 
intelligence,  the  quick  eye,  the  steady  hand,  the  wary  thought 
to  perceive  and  to  take  advantage  of  an  opportunity  —  these 


60  The  Science  of  Education. 

are  the  qualities  which  the  invention  of  gunpowder  set  up 
above  strength  and  brute  force.  The  Greek  nation,  and  we 
may  say  Greek  mythology  and  art,  would  have  been  impos- 
sible with  gunpowder ;  the  American  nation  impossible  with- 
out it. ) 
i  ' 

THIRD  CHAPTER. 
Sexual  Education. 

[This  chapter  is  designed  for  parents  rather  than  for  teachers, 
and  is  hence  not  paraphrased  here.  A  few  observations  are, 
however,  in  place.]  Great  care  is  necessary  at  the  period  of 
youth  that  a  rational  system  of  food  and  exercise  be  main- 
tained. But  the  general  fault  is  in  the  omission  of  this  care  in 
preceding  years.  One  cannot  neglect  due  precautions  for 
many  years,  and  then  hope  to  repair  the  damage  caused,  by  ex- 
treme care  for  one  or  two  years. 

Special  care  is  necessary  that  the  brain  be  not  overworked 
in  early  years,  and  a  morbid  excitation  of  the  whole  nervous 
system  thereby  induced.  We  desire  to  repress  any  tendency 
to  the  rapid  development  of  the  nervous  system.  Above  all, 
is  the  reading  of  the  child  to  be  carefully  watched  and 
guarded.  Nothing  can  be  worse  food  for  a  child  than  what  are 
called  sensational  romances.  That  the  reading  of  such  tends 
to  enfeeble  and  enervate  the  whole  thin-king  power  is  a  fact 
which  properly  belongs  to  the  intellectual  side  of  our  question 
not  yet  reached,  and  may  be  here  merely  mentioned.  But  the 
effect  on  the  physical  condition  of  the  youth,  of  sucli  carelessly 
written  sensational  stories,  mostly  of  the  French  type,  and 
full  of  sensuous,  if  not  sensual  suggestions,  is  a  point  not  often 
enough  considered.  The  teacher  cannot,  perhaps,  except  indi- 
rectly, prevent  the  reading  of  such  trash  at  home.  But  every 
influence  which  he  can  bring  to  bear  towards  the  formation  of  a 
purer  and  more  correct  taste,  he  should  never  omit.  Where 
there  is  a  public  library  in  the  town,  he  should  make  himself 
acquainted  with  its  contents,  and  give  the  children  direct  help 
in  their  selection  of  books. 


The  Science  of  Education.  01 

This  is  an  external  means.  But  he  should  never  forget  that 
every  influence  which  he  can  bring  to  bear  in  his  daily  work 
to  make  science  pleasant  and  attractive,  and  every  lesson 
which  he  gives  in  the  use  of  pure,  correct  English,  free  from 
exaggeration,  from  slang,  and  from  mannerism,  goes  far  to 
render  such  miserable  and  pernicious  trash  distasteful  even  to 
the  child  himself. 

Every  example  of  thorough  work,  every  pleasure  that  comes 
from  the  solving  of  a  problem  or  the  acquisition  of  a  HCAV 
fact,  is  so  much  fortification  against  the  advances  of  the  enemy  ; 
while  all  shallow  half  work,  all  pretence  or  show  tend  to 
create  an  appetite  in  the  child's  mind  which  shall  demand  such 
food . 

The  true  teacher  should  always  have  in  his  mind  these  far- 
away and  subtle  effects  of  his  teaching ;  not  present  good  or 
pleasure  either  for  himself  or  his  pupil,  but  the  far-off  good  — 
the  distant  development.  That  idea  would  free  him  from  the 
notion,  too  common  in  our  day,  that  the  success  or  failure  of 
his  efforts  is  to  be  tested  b}^  any  adroitly  contrived  system  of 
examinations  ;  or  still  worse,  exhibitions.  His  success  can 
alone  be  tested  by  the  future  lives  of  his  pupils — by  their 
love  for,  or  dislike  of,  new  knowledge.  His  success  will  be 
marked  by  their  active  growth  through  all  their  lives  ;  his  fail- 
ure, by  their  early  arrested  development. 


TJie  Science  of  Education. 


AN  OUTLINE  OF  EDUCATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY. 


BY    WM.  T.  HARRIS. 


[TO  BE  USED  AS  AN  INTRODUCTION   TO   PARAGRAPHS  81   TO  102  OF   ROSENKRANZ's 

PEDAGOGICS.] 

I. 

What  beings  can  be  educated ;  the  plant  has  reaction  against  its  surroundings  in  the 
form  of  nutrition;  the  animal  has  reaction  in  the  form  of  nutrition  and  feeling;  Aris- 
totle calls  the  life  of  the  plant  the  "  nutritive  soul,"  and  the  life  of  the  animal  the  "  sen- 
sitive soul." 

The  life  of  the  plant  is  a  continual  reproduction  of  new  individuals  —  a  process  of 
going  out  of  one  individual  into  another  — so  that  the  particular  individual  loses  its 
identity,  although  the  identity  of  the  species  is  preserved. 

That  which  is  dependent  upon  external  circumstances,  and  is  only 
a  circumstance  itself,  is  not  capable  of  education.  Only  a  "self" 
can  be  educated;  and  a  "self"  is  a  conscious  unity  —  a  "  self -ac- 
tivity," a  being  which  is  through  itself,  and  not  one  that  is  made  by 
surrounding  conditions. 

Again,  in  order  that  a  being  possess  a  capacity  for  education,  it 
must  have  the  ability  to  realize  within  itself  what  belongs  to  its 
species  or  race. 

If  an  acorn  could  develop  itself  so  that  it  could  realize,  not  only 
its  own  possibility  as  an  oak,  but  its  entire  species,  and  all  the  varie- 
ties of  oaks  within  itself,  and  without  losing  its  particular  individu- 
ality, it  would  possess  the  capacity  for  education.  But  an  acorn, 
in  reality,  cannot  develop  its  possibility  without  the  destruction  of  its 
own  individuality.  The  acorn  vanishes  in  the  oak  tree,  and  the  crop 
of  acorns  which  succeeds  is  not  again  the  same  acorn,  except  in  kind 
or  species..  "The  species  lives,  but  the  individual  dies,"  in  the 
vegetable  world. 

So  it  is  in  the  animal  world.  The  brute  lives  his  particular  life, 
unable  to  develop  within  himself  the  form  of  his  entire  species,  and 


The  Science  of  Education.  63 

still  less  the  form  of  all  animal  life.  And  yet  the  animal  possesses 
self- activity  in  the  powers  of  locomotion,  sense-perception,  feeling, 
emotion,  and  other  elementary  shapes.  Both  animal  and  plant  react 
against  surroundings,  and  possess  more  or  less  power  to  assimilate 
what  is  foreign  to  them.  The  plant  takes  moisture  and  elementary 
inorganic  substances,  and  converts  them  into  nutrition  wherewith  to 
build  its  cellular  growth.  The  animal  has  not  only  this  power  of 
nutrition,  which  assimilates  its  surroundings,  but  also  the  power  of 
feeling,  which  is  a  wonderful  faculty.  Feeling  reproduces  within  the 
organism  of  the  animal  the  external  condition ;  it  is  an  ideal  repro- 
duction of  the  surroundings.  The  environment  of  the  plant  may  be 
seized  upon  and  appropriated  in  the  form  of  sap,  or  in  the  form  of 
carbonic  acid,  for  the  nourishment  of  that  plant;  but  there  is  no 
ideal  reproduction  of  the  environment  in  the  form  of  feeling,  as  in 
the  animal. 

In  the  activity  of  feeling,  the  animal  transcends  his  material,  cor- 
poreal limits  —  lives  beyond  his  mere  body,  and  participates  in  the 
existence  of  all  nature.  He  reproduces  within  himself  the  external. 
Such  being  the  nature  of  the  activity  of  feeling,  which  forms  the  dis- 
tinguishing attribute  that  divides  animals  from  plants,  the  question 
meets  us  at  the  outset,  "Why  is  not  the  animal  capable  of  educa- 
tion? Why  can  he  not  realize  within  himself  his  entire  species  or 
race,  as  man  can?  " 

In  order  to  settle  this  fundamental  question,  we  must  study  care- 
fully the  scope  and  limits  of  this  activity,  which  we  have  termed 
"Feeling,"  and  which  is  known  under  many  names  —  as,  sensation, 
sensibility,  sensitivity,  sense-perception,  intuition,  and  others. 

Education  aims  to  develop  the  mind  as  intellect  and  will.  It  must 
.  know  what  it  is  to  develop,  and  learn  to  distinguish  higher  or  more 
complete  stages  of  intellect  and  will  f rom^those  which  are  rudimen- 
tary. 

Again,"  the  discussion  of  mind  begins  properly  with  the  first  or 
most  undeveloped  manifestation  —  at  the  stage  where  it  is  common 
to  brutes  and  huma*  beings.  Hence  we  may  begin  our  study  of 
educational  psychology  at  this  point  where  the  distinction  between 
animal  and  plant  appears,  and  where  the  question  of  the  capacity  for 
education  arises. 

When  we  understand  the  relation  of  feeling  or  sensibility  to  the 
higher  manifestations  of  mind,  we  shall  see  in  what  consists  a  capacity 
for  education,  and  we  shall  learn  many  essentials  in  regard  to  the 
matter  and  method,  the  what  and  the  how  of  education. 

A  general  survey  of  the  world  discovers  that  there  is  inter-action 


64  The  Science  of  Education. 

among  its  parts.  This  is  the  verdict  of  science,  as  the  systematic 
form  of  human  experience.  In  the  form  of  gravitation  we  under- 
stand that  each  body  depends  upon  every  other  body,  and  the 
annihilation  of  a  particle  of  matter  in  a  body  would  cause  a  change 
in  that  body  which  would  affect  every  other  body  in  the  physical 
universe.  Even  gravitation,  therefore,  is  a  manifestation  of  the  whole 
universe  in  each  part  of  it,  although  it  is  not  a  manifestation  which 
exists  for  that  part,  because  the  part  does  not  knotv  it. 

There  are  other  forms  wherein  the  whole  manifests  itself  in 
each  part  of  it — as,  for  example,  in  the  phenomena  of  light,  heat, 
and  possibly  in  magnetism  and  electricit}'.  These  forms  of  mani- 
festation of  the  external  world  upon  an  individual  object  are  de- 
striictive  to  the  individuality  of  the  object.  If  the  nature  of  a  thing 
is  stamped  upon  it  from  without,  it  is  an  element  only,  and  not  a  self ; 
it  is  dependent,  and  belongs  to  that  on  which  it  depends.  It  does 
not  possess  itself,  but  belongs  to  that  which  makes  it,  and  which 
gives  evidence  of  ownership  by  continually  modifying  it. 

But  the  plant,  as  we  just  now  said,  has  some  degree  of  self-activity, 
and  is  not  altogether  made  by  the  totality  of  external  conditions. 
The  growth  of  the  plant  is  through  assimilation  of  external  sub- 
stances. It  reacts  against  its  surroundings  and  digests  them,  and 
grows  through  the  nutrition  thus  formed. 

All  beings  that  cannot  react  against  surroundings  and  modify 
them,  lack  individuality.  Individuality  begins  with  this  power  of 
reaction  and  modification  of  external  surroundings.  Even  the  power 
of  cohesion  is  a  rudimentary  form  of  reaction  and  of  special  indi- 
viduality. 

In  the  case  of  the  plant,  the  reaction  is  reaZ,  but  not  also  ideal. 
The  plant  acts  upon  its  food,  and  digests  it,  or  assimilates  it,  and 
imposes  its  form  on  that  which  it  draws  within  its  organism.  It  does 
not,  however,  reproduce  within  itself  the  externality  as  that  exter- 
nal exists  for  itself.  It  does  not  form  within  itself  an  idea,  or  even 
a  feeling  of  that  which  is  external  to  it.  Its  participation  in  the 
external  world  is  only  that  of  real  modification|D/  it  or  through  it ; 
either  the  plant  digests  the  external,  or  the  external  limits  #,  and 
prevents  its  growth,  so  that  where  one  begins  the  other  ceases. 
Hence  it  is  that  the  elements  —  the  matter  of  which  the  plant  is 
composed,  that  which  it  has  assimilated  even  —  still  retain  a  large 
degree  of  foreign  power  or  force  —  a  large  degree  of  externality 
which  the  plant  has  not  been  able  to  annul  or  to  digest.  The  plant- 
activity  subdues  its  food,  changes  its  shape  and  its  place,  subordi- 
nates it  to  its  use;  but  what  the  matter  brings  with  it,  and  still  re- 


The  Science  of  Education.  65 

tains  of  the  world  beyond  the  plant,  does  not  exist  for  the  plant ;  the 
plant  cannot  read  or  interpret  the  rest  of  the  universe  from  that 
small  portion  of  it  which  it  has  taken  up  within  its  own  organism. 
And  yet  the  history  of  the  universe  is  impressed  on  each  particle 
of  matter,  as  well  within  the  plant  as  outside  of  it,  and  it  could  be 
understood  were  there  capacities  for  recognizing  it. 

The  reaction  of  the  life  of  the  plant  upon  the  external  world  is  not 
sufficient  to  constitute  a  fixed,  abiding  individuality.  With  each 
accretion  there  is  some  change  of  particular  individuality.  Every 
growth  to  a  plant  is  by  thp  sprouting  out  of  new  individuals  —  new 
plants  —  a  ceaseless  multiplication  of  individuals,  and  not  the  preserva- 
tion of  the  same  individual.  The  species  is  preserved,  but  not  the 
particular  individual.  Each  limb,  each  twig,  even  each  leaf  is  a  new 
individual,  which  grows  out  from  the  previous  growth  as  the  first 
sprout  grew  from  the  seed.  Each  part  furnishes  a  soil  for  the  next. 
When  a  plant  no  longer  sends  out  new  individuals,  we  say  it  is  dead. 
The  life  of  the  plant  is  only  a  life  of  nutrition. 

Aristotle  called  vegetable  life  "the  nutritive  soul,"  and  the  life  of 
the  animal  the  "feeling,"  or  sensitive  soul.  Nutrition  is  only  an 
activity  of  preservation  of  the  general  form  in  new  individuals,  it  is 
only  the  life  of  the  species,  and  not  the  life  of  the  permanent  individual. 

Therefore  we  see  that  in  the  vegetable  world  we  do  not  possess  a 
being  that  can  be  educated  —  for  no  individual  of  it  can  realize  within 
itself  the  species ;  its  realization  of  the  species  is  a  continual  process 
of  going  out  of  itself  in  new  individuals,  but  no  activity  of  return  to 
itself,  so  as  to  preserve  the  identity  of  an  individual. 


II. 

Feeling  is  a  unity  of  the  parts  of  an  organism  everywhere  present  in  it;  feeling  is  also 
an  ideal  reproduction  of  the  external  surroundings;  feeling  is  therefore  a  synthesis  of 
the  internal  and  external.  Aristotle  joins  locomotion  and  desire  to  feeling,  as  correlates ; 
how  desire  is  a  more  explicit  recognition  of  the  unity  of  the  external  and  internal  than 
the  first  form  of  feeling  is ;  feeling  reproduces  the  external  without  destroying  its  exter- 
nality, while  nutrition  receives  the  external  only  after  it  has  destroyed  its  individuality 
and  assimilated  it;  desire  is  the  side  of  feeling  that  unfolds  into  will. 

With  feeling  or  sensibility  we  come  to  a  being  that  reacts  on  the 
external  world  in  a  far  higher  manner,  and  realizes  a  more  wonderful 
form  of  individuality. 

The  animal  possesses,  in  common  with  the  plant,  a  process  of  assim- 
ilation and  nutrition.  Moreover,  lie  possesses  a  capacity  to  feel. 
Through  feeling,  or  sensation,  all  of  the  parts  of  his  extended  organ- 
ism are  united  in  one  centre.  He  is  one  individual,  and  not  a  bundle 
5 


66  The  Science  of  Education. 

of  separate  individuals,  as  a  plant  is.  With  feeling,  likewise,  are  joined 
locomotion  and  desire.  For  these  are  counterparts  of  feeling.  He 
feels  —  i.e.,  lives  as  one  indivisible  unity  throughout  his  organism 
and  controls  it,  and  moves  the  parts  of  his  body.  Desire  is  more  than 
mere  feeling.  Mere  feeling  alone  is  the  perception  of  the  external 
within  the  being,  hence  an  ideal  reproduction  of  the  external  world. 
In  feeling,  the  animal  exists  not  only  within  himself,  but  also  passes 
over  his  limit,  and  has  for  object  the  reality  of  the  external  world 
that  limits  him.  Hence  it  is  the  perception  of  his  finiteness  —  his 
limits  are  his  defects,  his  needs,  wants,  inadequateness  —  his  sep- 
aration from  the  world  as  a  whole.  In  feeling,  the  animal  perceives 
his  separation  from  the  rest  of  the  world,  and  also  his  union  with  it. 
Feeling  expands  into  desire  when  the  external  world,  or  some  portion 
of  it,  is  seen  as  ideally  belonging  to  the  limited  unity  of  the  animal 
being.  It  is  beyond  the  limit,  and  ought  to  be  assimilated  within  the 
limited  individuality  of  the  animal. 

Mere  feeling,  when  attentively  considered,  is  found  to  contain 
these  wonderful  features  of  self-activity :  it  reproduces  for  itself  the 
external  world  that  limits  it ;  it  makes  for  itself  an  ideal  object,  which 
includes  its  own  self  and  its  not-self  at  the  same  time.  It  is  a  higher 

D 

form  than  mere  nutrition ;  for  nutrition  destroys  the  nature  of  such 
externality  as  it  receives  into  itself,  while  feeling  preserves  the 
external  in  its  foreign  individuality. 

But  through  feeling  the  animal  ascends  to  desire,  and  sees  the 
independent  externality  as  an  object  for  its  acquisition,  and  through 
locomotion  it  is  enabled  to  seize  and  appropriate  it  in  a  degree  which 
the  plant  did  not  possess. 


III. 

The  various  forms  of  feeling— its  specialization:  (a)  touch,  the  feeling  of  mere  limits, 
the  indifferent  external  independence  of  the  organism  and  its  surroundings ;  (6)  taste, 
the  feeling  of  the  external  object  when  it  is  undergoing  dissolution  by  assimilation; 
(c)  smell,  the  feeling  of  chemical  dissolution  in  general ;  (d)  hearing,  the  feeling  of  the 
resistance  of  bodies  against  attacks:  sound  being  vibration  caused  by  elastic  reaction 
against  attacks  on  cohesion;  (e)  seeing,  the  feeling  of  objects  in  their  independence, 
without  dissolution  or  attack ;  plant  life,  nutrition,  a  process  in  which  the  individuality  is 
not  preserved  either  in  time  or  in  space;  animal  life,  as  feeling,  preserves  its  individu- 
ality as  regards  space,  but  not  as  regards  time. 

Having  noted  these  important  characteristics  of  the  lower  orders  of 
life,  and  found  that  reaction  from  the  part  against  the  whole  —  from 
the  internal  against  the  external  —  belongs  to  plant  life  and  animal 
life,  we  may  now  briefly  mention  the  ways  in  which  feeling  is  par- 
ticularized. In  the  lower  animals  it  is  only  the  feeling  of  touch ;  in 


The  Science  of  Education.  67 

higher  organisms  it  becomes  also  localized  as  seeing,  hearing,  taste, 
and  smell.  These  forms  of  sense-perception  constitute  a  scale  (as  it 
were)  of  feeling.  With  touch,  there  is  reproduction  of  externality, 
but  the  ideality  of  the  reproduction  is  not  so  complete  as  in  the  other 
forms.  With  taste,  the  feeling  cognizes  the  external  object  as 
undergoing  dissolution,  and  assimilation  within  its  own  organism. 
We  taste  only  what  we  are  beginning  to  destroy  by  the  first  process 
of  assimilation — that  of  eating.  In  smell,  we » perceive  chemical 
dissolution  of  bodies.  In  seeing  and  hearing,  we  have  the  forms  of 
ideal  sensibility.  Hearing  perceives  the  attack  made  on  the  indi- 
viduality of  an  external  thing,  and  its  reaction  in  vibrations,  which 
reveal  to  us  its  internal  nature  —  its  cohesion,  etc.  In  seeing,  we 
have  the  highest  form  of  sense-perception  as  the  perception  of  things 
in  their  external  independence  —  not  as  being  destined  chemically, 
like  the  objects  of  taste  and  smell ;  not  as  being  attacked  and  resist- 
ing, like  the  objects  which  are  known  through  the  ear ;  not  as  mere 
limits  to  our  organism,  as  in  the  sense  of  touch. 

Sense-perception,  as  the  developed  realization  of  the  activity  of 
feeling,  belongs  to  the  animal  creation,  including  man  as  an  animal. 

We  have  not  yet,  therefore,  answered  the  question  of  capacity  for 
education,  so  far  as  it  concerns  a  discrimination  between  man  and 
the  brute.  We  have  only  arrived  at  the  conclusion  that  the  vege- 
table world  does  not  possess  the  capacity  for  education,  because  its 
individual  specimens  are  no  complete  individuals,  but  only  transi- 
tory phases  manifesting  the  species  by  continual  reproduction  of 
new  individuals  which  are  as  incomplete  as  the  old  ones.  Plant  life 
does  not  possess  that  self-activity  which  returns  into  itself  in  the 
same  individual  —  if  we  may  so  express  it;  it  goes  out  of  one  indi- 
vidual into  another  perpetually.  Its  identity  is  that  of  the  species, 
but  not  of  the  individual. 

How  is  it  with  the  animal  —  with  the  being  which  possesses  sensi- 
bility, or  feeling?  This  question  recurs.  In  feeling  there  is  a  reac- 
tion, just  as  in  the  plant.  This  reaction  is,  however,  in  an  ideal 
form  —  the  reproduction  of  the  external  without  assimilation  of  it  — 
and  especially  is  this  the  case  in  the  sense  of  sight,  though  it  is  true 
of  all  forms  of  sensation  to  a  less  degree. 

But  all  forms  of  sensibility  are  limited  and  special ;  they  refer  only 
to  the  present,  in  its  forms  of  here  and  now.  The  animal  cannot  feel 
what  is  not  here  and  now.  Even  seeing  is  limited  to  what  is  present 
before  it.  When  we  reflect  upon  the  significance  of  this  limitation 
of  sense-perception,  we  shall  find  that  we  need  some  higher  form  of 
self-activity  still  before  we  can  realize  the  species  in  the  individual 


68  The  Science  of  Education. 

i.e.,  before  we  can  obtain  the  true  individual — the  permanent 
individuality. 

The  defect  in  plant  life  was,  that  there  was  neither  identity  of 
individuality  in  space  nor  identity  in  time.  The  growth  of  the 
plant  destroyed  the  individuality  of  the  seed  with  which  we  began, 
so  that  it  was  evanescent  in  time*;  it  served  only  as  the  starting-point 
for  new  individualities,  which  likewise,  in  turn,  served  again  the  same 
purpose  ;  and  so  its  growth  in  space  was  a  departure  from  itself  as 
individual. 

The  animal  is  a  preservation  of  individuality  as  regards  space.  He 
returns  into  himself  in  the  form  of  feeling  or  sensibility ;  but  as  re- 
gards time,  it  is  not  so — feeling  being  limited  to  the  present.  With- 
out a  higher  activity  than  feeling,  there  is  no  continuity  of  individu- 
ality in  the  animal  any  more  than  in  the  plant.  Each  new  moment 
is  a  new  beginning  to  a  being  that  has  feeling,  but  not  memory. 

Thus  the  individuality  of  mere  feeling,  although  a  far  more  perfect 
realization  of  individuality  than  that  found  in  plant  life,  is  yet, 
after  all,  not  a  continuous  individuality  for  itself,  but  only  for  the 
species. 

In  spite  of  the  ideal  self-activity  which  appertains  to  feeling,  even 
in  sense-perception,  only  the  species  lives  in  the  animal  and  the 
individual  dies,  unless  there  be  higher  forms  of  activity. 


IV. 

Representation  is  the  next  form  above  sense-perception.  The  lowest  phase  of  repre- 
sentation is  recollection,  which  simply  repeats  for  itself  a  former  sense-perception  or 
series  of  sense-perceptions ;  in  representation  the  mind  is  free  as  regards  external 
impressions ;  it  do'es  not  require  the  presence  of  the  object,  but  recalls  it  without  its  own 
time  and  place ;  fancy  and  imagination  are  next  higher  than  recollection,  because  the 
mind  not  only  recalls  images,  but  makes  new  combinations  of  them,  or  creates  them 
altogether;  attention  is  the  appearance  of  the  will  in  the  intellect;  with  attention  begins 
the  separation  of  the  transient  from  the  variable  in  perception;  memory  is  the  highest 
form  of  representation;  memory  deals  with  general  forms  —  not  mere  images  of  expe- 
rience, but  general  types  of  objects  of  perception ;  memory,  in  this  sense,  is  productive  as 
well  as  reproductive ;  with  memory  arises  language. 

Here  we  pass  over  to  the  consideration  of  higher  forms  of  intellect 
and  will. 

While  mere  sensation,  as  such,  acts  only  in  the  presence  of  the 
object  —  reproducing  (ideally),  it  is  true,  the  external  object,  the 
faculty  of  representation  is  a  higher  form  of  self-activity  (or  of 
reaction  against  surrounding  conditions),  because  it  can  recall,  at  its 
own  pleasure,  the  ideal  object.  Here  is  the  beginning  of  emancipation 
from  the  limitations  of  time. 


The  Science  of  Education.  69 

The  self-activity  of  representation  can  summon  before  it  the  object 
that  is  no  longer  present  to  it.  Hence  its  activity  is  now  a  double  one, 
for  it  can  seize  not  only  what  is  now  and  here  immediately  before  it, 
but  it  can  compare  this  present  object  with  the  past,  and  identify  or 
distinguish  between  the  two.  Thus  recollection  or  representation  may 
become  memory. 

As  memory,  the  mind  achieves  a  form  of  activity  far  above  that  of 
sense-perception  or  mere  recollection.  It  must  be  noted  carefully 
that  mere  recollection  or  representation,  although  it  holds  fast  the  per- 
ception in  time  (making  it  permanent),  does  not  necessarily  constitute 
an  activity  completely  emancipated  from  time,  nor  indeed  very  far 
advanced  towards  it.  It  is  only  the  beginning  of  such  emancipation. 
For  mere  recollection  stands  in  the  presence  of  the  special  object  of 
sense-perception  ;  although  the  object  is  no  longer  present  to  the 
senses  (or  to  mere  feeling),  yet  the  image  is  present  to  the  repre- 
sentative perception,  and  is  just  as  much  a  particular  here  and  now  as 
the  object  of  sense-perception.  There  intervenes  a  new  activity  on 
the  part,  of  the  soul  before  it  arrives  at  memory.  Recollection  is  not 
memory,  but  it  is  the  activity  which  grows  into  it  by  the  aid  of  the 
activity  of  attention. 

The  special  characteristics  of  objects  of  the  senses  are  allowed  to 
drop  away,  in  so  far  as  they  are  unessential  and  merely  circumstantial, 
and  gradually  there  arises  in  the  mind  the  type  —  the  general  form  — 
of  the  object  perceived.  This  general  form  is  the  object  of  memory. 
Memory  deals  therefore  with  what  is  general,  and  a  type,  rather  than 
with  what  is  directly  recollected  or  perceived. 

The  activity  by  which  the  mind  ascends  from  sense-perception  to 
memory  is  the  activity  of  attention.  Here  we  have  the  appearance 
of  the  will  in  intellectual  activity.  Attention  is  the  control  of  per- 
ception by  means  of  the  will.  The  senses  shall  no  longer  passively 
receive  and  report  what  is  oefore  them,  but  they  shall  choose  some 
definite  point  of  observation,  and  neglect  all  the  rest. 

Here,  in  the  act  of  attention  we  find  abstraction,  and  the  greater 
attainment  of  freedom  by  the  mind.  The  mind  abstracts  its  view 
from  the  many  things  before  it,  and  concentrates  on  one  point. 

Educators  have  for  many  ages  noted  that  the  habit  of  attention  is 
the  first  step  in  intellectual  education.  With  it  we  have  found  the 
point  of  separation  between  the  animal  intellect  and  the  human. 
Not  attention  simply  —  like  that  with  which  the  cat  watches  by  the 
hole  of  a  mouse  —  but  attention  which  arrives  at  results  of  abstrac- 
tion, is  the  distinguishing  characteristic  of  educative  beings. 

Attention  abstracts  from  some  things  before  it  and  concentrates 


70  The  Science  of  Education. 

on  others.  Through  attention  grows  the  capacity  to  discriminate 
between  the  special,  particular  object  and  its  general  type.  Gener- 
alization arises,  but  not  what  is  usually  called  generalization  —  only  a 
more  elementary  form  of  it.  Memory,  as  the  highest  form  of  repre- 
sentation—  distinguishing  it  from  mere  recollection,  which  repro- 
duces only  what  has  been  perceived  —  such  memory  deals  with  the 
general  forms  of  objects,  their  continuity  in  time.  Such  activity  of 
memory,  therefore,  does  not  reproduce  mere  images,  but  only  the 
concepts  or  general  ideas  of  things,  and  therefore  it  belongs  to  the 
stage  of  mind  that  uses  language. 


V. 

Language  marks  the  arrival  at  the  stage  of  thought  — at  the  stage  of  the  perception 
of  universals  —  hence  at  the  possibility  of  education;  language  fixes  the  general  types 
which  the  productive  memory  forms ;  each  one  of  these  types,  indicated  by  a  word, 
stands  for  a  possible  infinite  of  sense-perceptions  or  recollections  ;  the  word  tree,  stands 
for  all  the  trees  that  exist,  and  for  all  that  have  existed  or  will  exist.  Animals  do  not 
create  for  themselves  a  new  world  of  general  types,  but  deal  only  with  the  first  world 
of  particular  objects :  hence  they  are  lost  in  the  variety  and  multiplicity  of  continuous 
succession  and  difference.  Man's  sense-perception  is  with  memory;  hence  always 
;i  recognition  of  the  object  as  not  wholly  new,  but  only  as  an  example  of  what  he 
is  mostly  familiar  with.  Intellectual  education  has  for  its  object  the  cultivation  of 
reflection;  reflection  is  the  Platonic  "Reminiscence,"  which  retraces  the  unconscious 
processes  of  thought. 

Language  is  the  means  of  distinguishing  between  the  brute  and 
the  human  —  between  the  animal  soul,  which  has  continuity  only  in 
the  species  (which  pervades  its  being  in  the  form  of  instinct),  and  the 
human,  soul,  which  is  immortal,  and  possessed  of  a  capacity  to  be 
educated. 

There  is  no  language  until  the  mind  can  perceive  general  types 
of  existence ;  mere  proper  names  nor  mere  exclamations  or  cries 
do  not  constitute  language.  All  words  that  belong  to  language  are 
significative  —  they  l '  express  "  or  ; '  mean ' '  something  —  hence  they 
are  conventional  symbols,  and  not  mere  individual  designations. 
Language  arises  only  through  common  consent,  and  is  not  an  inven- 
tion of  one  individual.  It  is  a  product  of  individuals  acting  together 
as  a  community,  and  hence  implies  the  ascent  of  the  individual  into 
the  species.  Unless  au  individual  could  ascend  into  the  species  he 
could  not  understand  language.  To  know  words  and  their  meaning 
is  an  activity  of  divine  significance ;  it  denotes  the  formation  of 
universals  in  the  mind  —  the  ascent  above  the  here  and  now  of  the 
senses,  and  above  the  representation  of  mere  images,  to  the  activity 
which  grasps  together  the  general  conception  of  objects,  and  thus 
reaches  beyond  what  is  transient  and  variable. 


The  Science  of  Education.  71 

Doubtless  the  nobler  species  of  animals  possess  not  only  sense- 
perception,  but  a  considerable  degree  of  the  power  of  representation. 
The}'  are  not  only  able  to  recollect,  but  to  imagine  or  fancy  to  some 
extent,  as  is  evidenced  by  their  dreams.  But  that  animals  do  not 
generalize  sufficiently  to  form  for  themselves  a  new  objective  world 
of  types  and  general  concepts,  we  have  a  sufficient  evidence  in  the 
fact  that  they  do  not  use  words,  or  invent  conventional  symbols. 
With  the  activity  of  the  symbol-making  form  of  representation, 
which  we  have  named  Memory,  and  whose  evidence  is  the  invention 
and  use  of  language,  the  true  form  of  individuality  is  attained,  and 
each  individual  human  being,  as  mind,  may  be  said  to  be  the  entire 
species.  Inasmuch  as  he  can  form  universals  in  his  mind,  he  can 
realize  the  most  abstract  thought ;  and  he  is  conscious.  Conscious- 
ness begins  when  one  can  seize  the  pure  universal  in  the  presence  of 
immediate  objects  here  and  now. 

The  sense-perception  of  the  mere  animal,  therefore,  differs  from 
that  of  the  human  being  in  this :  — 

The  human  being  knows  himself  as  subject  that  sees  the  object, 
while  the  animal  sees  the  object,  but  does  not  separate  himself,  as 
universal,  from  the  special  act  of  seeing.  To  know  that  I  am  I,  is 
to  know  the  most  general  of  objects,  and  to  carry  out  abstraction 
to  its  very  last  degree ;  and  yet  this  is  what  all  human  beings  do, 
young  or  old,  savage  or  civilized.  The  savage  invents  and  uses 
language  —  an  act  of  the  species,  but  which  the  species  cannot  do 
without  the  participation  of  the  individual. 

It  should  be  carefully  noted  that  this  activity  of  generalization 
which  produces  language,  and  characterizes  the  human  from  the 
brute,  is  not  the  generalization  of  the  activity  of  thought,  so-called. 

It  is  the  preparation  for  thought.  These  general  types  of  things 
are  the  things  which  thought  deals  with.  Thought  does  not  deal 
with  mere  immediate  objects  of  the  senses ;  it  deals  rather  with  the 
objects  which  are  indicated  by  words  —  i.e.,  general  objects. 

Some  writers  would  have  us  suppose  that  we  do  not  arrive  at  gen- 
eral notions  except  by  the  process  of  classification  and  abstraction, 
in  the  mechanical  manner  that  they  lay  down  for  this  purpose.  The 
fact  is  that  the  mind  has  arrived  at  these  general  ideas  in  the  process 
of  learning  language.  In  infancj^,  most  children  have  learned  such 
words  as  i.s,  existence,  being,  nothing,  motion,  cause,  change,  I,  you, 
he,  etc.,  etc. 

But  the  point  is  not  the  mere  arrival  at  these  ideas.  Education 
does  not  concern  itself  with  that ;  it  does  not  concern  itself  with 


72  The  Science  of  Education. 

children  who  have  not  yet  learned  to  talk — -that  is  left  for  the  nur- 
sery. 

'  It  is  the  process  of  becoming  conscious  of  these  ideas  by  reflec- 
tion, with  which  we  have  to  concern  ourselves  in  education.  Reflec- 
tion is  everywhere  the  object  of  education.  Even  when  the  school 
undertakes  to  teach  pupils  the  correct  method  of  observation  —  how 
to  use  the  senses,  as  in  "object-lessons"  —  it  all  means  reflective 
observation,  conscious  use  of  the  senses ;  it  would  put  this  in  the 
place  of  the  naive  spontaneity  which  characterizes  the  first  stages  of 
sense-perception. 

We  must  not  underrate  these  precepts  of  pedagogy  because  we 
find  that  they  are  not  what  it  claims  for  them — ?'.e.,  they  are  not 
methods  of  first  discovery,  and  of  arrival  at  principles,  but  only 
methods  of  reflection,  and  of  recognizing  what  we  have  already 
learned.  We  see  that  Plato's  "  Reminiscence"  was  a  true  form  of 
statement  for  the  perception  of  truths  of  reflection.  The  first  know- 
ing is  utterly  unconscious  of  its  own  method  ;  the  second  or  scientific 
form  of  knowing,  which  education  develops,  is  a  knowing  in  which 
the  mind  knows  its  method.  Hence  it  is  a  knowing  which  knows  its 
own  necessity  and  universality. 

VI. 

Education  presupposes  the  stage  of  mind  reached  in  productive  memory;  it  deals  with 
reflection;  four  stages  of  reflection:  (a)  sensuous  ideas  perceive  things;  (b)  abstract 
ideas  perceive  forces  or  elements  of  a  process;  (c)  concrete  idea  perceives  one  process, 
a  pantheistic  first  principle,  persistent  force;  (d)  absolute  idea  perceives  a  conscious 
first  principle,  absolute  person. 

We  have  considered  in  our  psychological  study  thus  far  the  forms 
of  life  and  cognition,  contrasting  the  phase  of  nutrition  with  that  of 
feeling,  or  sensibility.  We  have  seen  the  various  forms  of  feeling  in 
sense-perception,  and  the  various  forms  of  representation  as  the 
second  phase  of  intellectual  activity  —  the  forms  of  recollection, 
fancy,  imagination,  attention,  and  memory.  We  draw  the  line 
between  the  animals  capable  of  education  and  those  not  capable  of 
it,  at  the  point  of  memory  defined  —  not  as  recollection,  but  as  the 
faculty  of  general  ideas  or  conceptions,  to  which  the  significant  words 
of  language  correspond. 

With  the  arrival  at  language,  we  arrive  at  education  in  the  humar> 
sense  of  the  term ;  with  the  arrival  at  language,  we  arrive  at  the  view 
of  the  world  at  which  thought  as  a  mental  process  begins.  As  sense- 
perception  has  before  it  a  world  of  present  objects,  so  thought  has 


The  Science  of  Education.  73 

before  it  a  world  of  general  concepts,  which  language  has  defined 
and  fixed. 

It  is  true  that  few  persons  are  aware  that  language  stands  for  a 
world  of  general  ideas,  and  that  reflection  has  to  do  with  this  world  of 
universals.  Hence  it  is,  too,  that  so  much  of  the  so-called  science  of 
education  is  very  crude  and  impractical.  Much  of  it  is  materialistic, 
and  does  not  recognize  the  self-activity  of  mind  ;  but  makes  it  out  to 
be  a  correlation  of  physical  energies — derived  from  the  transmuta- 
tion of  food  by  the  process  of  digestion,  and  then  by  the  brain  eon- 
verted  into  thought. 

Let  us  consider  now  the  psychology  of  thinking,  or  reflection,-  and 
at  first  in  its  most  inadequate  forms.  As  a  human  process,  the  know- 
ing is  always  a  knowing  by  universals  —  a  re-cognition,  and  not  sim- 
ple apprehension,  such  as  the  animals,  or  such  as  beings  have  that 
do  not  use  language.  The  process  of  development  of  stages  of 
thought  begins  with  sensuous  ideas,  which  perceive  mere  individual, 
concrete,  real  objects,  as  it  supposes.  In  conceiving  these,  it  uses 
language  and  thinks  general  ideas,  but  it  does  not  know  it,  nor  is  it 
conscious  of  the  relations  involved  in  such  objects.  This  is  the  first 
stage  of  reflection.  The  world  exists  for  it  as  an  innumerable  con- 
geries of  things,  each  one  independent  of  the  other,  and  possessing 
self-existence.  It  is  the  stand-point  from  which  atomism  would  be 
adopted  as  the  philosophic  system.  Ask  it  what  the  ultimate  prin- 
ciple of  existence  is,  and  it  would  reply,  "  Atoms." 

But  this  view  of  the  world  is  a  very  unstable  one,  and  requires 
very  little  reflection  to  overturn  it,  and  bring  one  to  the  next  basis  — 
that  of  abstract  ideas.  When  the  mind  looks  carefully  at  the  world 
of  things,  it  finds  that  there  is  dependence  and  interdependence.  Each 
object  is  related  to  something  else,  and  changes  when  that  changes. 
Each  object  is  a  part  of  a  process  that  is  going  on.  The  process 
produced  it,  and  the  process  will  destroy  it —  nay,  it  is  destroying  it 
now,  while  we  look  at  it.  We  find,  therefore,  that  things  are  not  the 
true  beings  which  we  thought  them  to  be,  but  processes  are  the 
reality.  Science  takes  this  attitude,  and  studies  out  the  history  of 
each  thing  in  its  rise  and  its  disappearance,  and  it  calls  this  history 
the  truth.  This  stage  of  thinking  does  not  believe  in  atoms  or  in 
things;  it  believes  in  forces  and  processes — "abstract  ideas"  — 
because  they  are  negative,  and  cannot  be  seen  by  the  senses.  This 
is  the  dynamic  stand-point  in  philosophy. 

Reflection  knows  that  these  abstract  ideas  possess  more  truth,  more 
reality,  than  the  ' '  things ' '  of  sense-perception ;  the  force  is  more 


74  The  Science  of  Education. 

real  than  the  thing,  because  it  outlasts  a  thing,  —  it  causes  things  to 
originate,  and  to  change,  and  disappear. 

This  stage  of  abstract  ideas  or  of  negative  powers  or  forces  finally 
becomes  convinced  of  the  essential  unity  of  all  processes  and  of  all 
forces ;  it  sets  up  the  doctrine  of  the  correlation  of  forces,  and 
believes  that  persistent  force  is  the  ultimate  truth,  the  fundamental 
reality  of  the  world.  This  we  may  call  a  concrete  idea,  for  it  sets 
up  a  principle  which  is  the  origin  of  all  things  and  forces,  and  also 
the  destroyer  of  all  things,  and  hence  more  real  than  the  world  of 
things  and  forces ;  and  because  this  idea,  when  carefully  thought 
out,  proves  to  be  the  idea  of  self-determination  —  self-activity. 

Persistent  force,  as  taught  us  by  the  scientific  men  of  our  da}T,  is 
the  sole  ultimate  principle,  and  as  such  it  gives  rise  to  all  existence 
by  its  self-activity,  for  there  is  nothing  else  for  it  to  act  upon.  It 
causes  all  origins,  all  changes,  and  all  evanescence.  It  gives  rise  to 
the  particular  forces  —  heat,  light,  electricity,  magnetism,  etc. — 
which  in  their  turn  cause  the  evanescent  forms  which  sense-percep- 
tion sees  as  "things." 

We  have  described  three  phases :  — 

I.  Sensuous  Ideas  perceive  "  things." 

II.  Abstract  Ideas  perceive  "forces." 

III.  Concrete  Idea  perceives  "persistent  force." 

In  this  progress  from  one  phase  of  reflection  to  another,  the  intel- 
lect advances  to  a  deeper  and  truer  reality  J  at  each  step. 


1  Hume,  in  his  famous  sketch  of  the  Human  Understanding,  makes  all  the  percep- 
tions of  the  human  mind  resolve  themselves  into  two  distinct  kinds :  impressions 
and  ideas.  "  The  difference  between  them  consists  in  the  degrees  of  force  and 
liveliness  with  which  they  strike  upon  the  mind,  and  make  their  way  into  our 
thought  and  consciousness.  Those  perceptions  which  enter  with  the  most  force 
and  violence  we  may  name  impressions,  and  under  this  name  include  all  our  sen- 
sations, passions,  and  emotions,  as  they  make  their  first  appearance  in  the  soul. 
By  ideas,  I  mean  the  faint  images  of  these  in  thinking  and  reasoning."  "  The 
identity  which  we  ascribe  to  the  mind  of  man  is  only  a  fictitious  one." 

From  this  we  see  that  his  stand-point  is  that  of  "sensuous  ideas,"  the  first  stage 
of  reflection.  The  second  or  .third  stage  of  reflection,  if  consistent,  would  not  ad- 
mit the  reality  to  be  the  object  of  sense-impressions,  and  the  abstract  ideas  to 
be  only  "faint  images."  One  who  holds,  like  Herbert  Spencer,  that  persistent 
force .  is  the  ultimate  reality  — "  the  sole  truth,  which  transcends  experience  by 
underlying  it" — ought  to  hold  that  the  generalization  which  reaches  the  idea  of 
unity  of  force  is  the  truest  and  most  adequate  of  thoughts.  And  yet  Herbert 
Spencer  holds  substantially  the  doctrine  of  Hume,  in  the  words :  "  We  must 
predicate  nothing  of  objects  too  great  or  too  multitudinous  to  be  mentally  repre- 


The  Science  of  Education.  75 

Sense-ideas  which  look  upon  the  world  as  a  world  of  independent 
objects,  do  not  cognize  the  world  truly.  The  next  step,  abstract 
ideas,  cognizes  the  world  as  a  process  of  forces,  and  "  things"  are 
seen  to  be  mere  temporary  equilibria  in  the  interaction  of  forces ; 
"  each  thing  is  a  bundle  of  forces."  But  the  concrete  idea  of  the 
Persistent  force  sees  a  deeper  and  more  permanent  reality  underly- 
ing particular  forces.  It  is  one  ultimate  force.  In  it  all  multiplicity 
of  existences  has  vanished,  and  yet  it  is  the  source  of  all  particular 
existence. 

This  view  of  the  world,  on  the  stand-point  of  concrete  idea,  is 
pantheistic.  It  makes  out  a  one  supreme  principle  which  originates 
and  destroys  all  particular  existences,  all  finite  beings.  It  is  the 
stand-point  of  Orientalism,  or  of  the  Asiatic  thought.  Buddhism 
and  Brahminism  have  reached  it,  and  not  transcended  it.  It  is  a 
necessary  stage  of  reflection  in  the  mind,  just  as  much  as  the  stand- 
point of  the  first  stage  of  reflection,  which  regards  the  world  as  com- 
posed of  a  multiplicity  of  independent  things ;  or  the  stand-point  of 
the  second  stage  of  reflection,  which  looks  upon  the  world  as  a  col- 
lection of  relative  existences  in  a  state  of  process. 

The  final  stand-point  of  the  intellect  is  that  in  which  it  perceives 
the  highest  principle  to  be  a  self-determining  or  self-active  Being, 
self-conscious,  and  creator  of  a  world  which  manifests  him.  A  logical 
investigation  of  the  principle  of  "  pdrsistent  force  "  would  prove  that 
this  principle  of  Personal  Being  is  presupposed  as  its  true  form.  Since 
the  "•  persistent  force"  is  the  sole  and  ultimate  reality,  it  originates 
all  other  reality  only  by  self-activity,  and  thus  is  self-determined. 
Self-determination  implies  self-consciousness  as  the  true  form  of  its 
existence. 

These  four  forms  of  thinking,  which  we  have  arbitrarily  called  sen- 
suous, abstract,  concrete,  and  absolute  ideas,  correspond  to  four  views 
of  the  world:  (1)  as  a  congeries  of  independent  things;  (2)  as  a 
play  of  forces;  (3)  as  the  evanescent  appearance  of  a  negative 
essential  power ;  (4)  as  the  creation  of  a  Personal  Creator,  who  makes 
it  the  theatre  of  the  development  of  conscious  beings  in  his  image. 
Each  step  upward  in  ideas  arrives  at  a  more  adequate  idea  of  the  true 
reality.  Force  is  more  real  than  thing;  persistent  force  than  particu- 
lar forces ;  Absolute  Person  is  more  real  than  the  force  or  forces 
which  he  creates. 


eented,  or  we  must  make  our  predications  by  means  of  extremely  inadequate 
representations  of  such  objects  —  mere  symbols  of  them."  (Page  27  of  "First 
Principles.") 


76  The  Science  of  Education. 

This  final  form  of  thinking  is  the  only  form  which  is  consistent  with 
the  theory  of  education.  Each  individual  should  ascend  by  education 
into  participation — conscious  participation — in  the  life  of  the  species. 
Institutions — family,  society,  state,  church  —  all  are  instrumentalities 
by  which  the  humble  individual  may  avail  himself  of  the  help  of  the 
race,  and  live  over  in  himself  its  life.  The  highest  stage  of  thinking 
is  the  stage  of  insight.  It  sees  the  world  as  explained  by  the  prin- 
ciple of  Absolute  Person.  It  finds  the  world  of  institutions  a  world 
in  harmony  with  such  a  principle. 


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